Cards made at Card Ministry Night

Good early evening, y'all!!!   I hope y'all are doing well this wonderful, fine day!   When we have days as beautiful as the last few days have been, you just have to say, "God is Good"!!!    As I look out through the woods and forests, I can now see that all the trees are fully leafed out now.   Just barely a month ago, I seen no greenery, now here we are, in full blown Spring with temps in the high 80's.    Wow, wow, wow!

I haven't posted in a while, I just needed to be still.   I am not fully over the vertigo that has been a minor issue for the last little bit, so, I have to just do what I feel up to doing, when I feel up to it.   But, I have been managing to get some cards put together that I have been working on for quite a while.   So, all the time was not lost.  Yay!    So, I will share those projects real soon.

Tonight, what I wanted share was some cards that I made at Card Ministry Night at church last night.   I just have to say that the lady that is over this project really works hard at getting this together each month.   She does it out of the love that she has for her Lord and Savior and for what He has done for her in her life.   I am more than honored to call her my sister in Christ and friend!    Last night there was six of that came together to make cards and we had a blast doing it.   Every table was full of laughter and fellowship and the sweet, sweet, Spirit of the Lord was with us.   Praises to God for His presence and goodness at all times.

She had prepared for us to make four cards last night.   Three of the cards was for general use and the fourth card was specifically for Memorial Day and Fourth of July.   By the time I got the first three cards made, I was pooped out, so I didn't get the fourth one made.   I am so wishing now that I would have made it.

When our card lady gets the cards together, she gets together enough for each of us to make two or three cards of each design and then we get to keep one and give the others to the Card Ministry and then the ladies in the Sunday School Class gets to send cards to whom ever they wish to send a card to.   It is really fun on Sunday mornings watching all the ladies look at the cards and oohing and aahing over them and who they are going to send cards to.   It is a great time.   I did take pics of the cards I made last night.

I think the punch for the flowers and leaves and then the stamps to stamp them with are StampinUp.   I enjoyed this making this card and putting all the layers together.

I think most of the products on this one is StampinUp also, I'm not sure.   The butterflies are cut out using a Sizzix Embosslet die that cuts and embosses at the same time.   It may be StampinUp, I'm not sure.   I don't remember seeing that particular embosslet at the Sizzix store.   I really liked making this one also.   It was really fun.   What is so fun about these cards, is that each one of us can take the same pieces and put the cards together just a little differently enough that they are all unique.

I think this may have been my fav card of the night.   It just makes me happy when I look at it.   I think the combination of the dotted swiss background and the ever so delicate flowers reminds me of a dotted swiss dress that I had when I was a young girl.   Dotted swiss has always been a fav of mine, simply because of the memories of my mother sewing for myself and her, many years ago.   Anything that helps you remember the good stuff is great!!!

This is what we done last night and I'm really sorry that I don't have the fourth card to show you, I could just pinch me.   hahaha

As I leave you this evening, I ask you this question, simply because I have had to ask myself this question more than once over the years.  Do you rejoice in hope?   If your hope is in Christ Jesus, then you should rejoice in your hope.   Our hope in Christ Jesus will be fulfilled when we breathe our last breath and enter into the kingdom of heaven.   But, until then, we can and should rejoice in our hope.   The world does not and can not offer the hope that Jesus Christ freely gives to those who choose to follow Him.   If you rejoice in hope, then more than likely you will be patient through tribulation.   We all have times in our lives that call for much patience.   If we don't develop patience in our Christian walk, we will find ourselves repeating the same old, same old, over and over.   If we can be patient in every day life, then, when the biggie stuff comes along, we have a greater chance of being patient and waiting on the Lord through the trying times.  One  of the surest ways of rejoicing in our hope and and being patient in tribulation is by being constant in prayer.   We should always be in prayer, what ever we are doing, we should have that communication with our Father God, Abba Daddy going on.  

Romans 12:12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

This particular scripture comes from a passage in Romans Chapter 12 where Paul, thru the inspiration of Jesus Christ is urging Christians to be living sacrifices for Jesus Christ.   What does a living sacrifice do?   Point others to Christ!   Christ died for us and we should be living for Christ!    If we are living for Christ, that means we should loving those around us.   We should be living in such a way that they see Jesus in us.    They should see us rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, constant in prayer.   Prayer should be a priority in our lives.   I challenge all of us to make Romans 12:12 the theme of our lives.   Who's up to the challenge?

Well, my friends, I pray y'all have a blessed evening, wonderful night of refreshing rest and a great day tomorrow!   Meet me back here in a day or two and see what else I have to share with you.

Hi Ladybug, Sweet pea loves you bunches!!!!

God loves y'all and so do I!   much love and many hugs, Patty

Happy February and a Project

Good evening, Y'all!!!   Tell me something, if you can.    WHERE in the world did January go?????    I went to bed last night and it was Christmas Eve, and I get up this morning and it's February 1st!   Wow, Wow,Wow!!!   That's what it feels like anyway.   We are already a full month into 2014.   But, when I stop and remind myself that I am not the keeper of time and God is, then it's ok.   The one thing I am responsible for is trying to make good use of the time that God has graciously alotted me.   I have had to opportunity to study and dig deeper into the Word of God in preparation for teaching Sunday School Class for the next four Sundays.   I have had the opportunity to speak with and share with dear friends.   I have had the opportunity to pray for those around me that are sick, hurting, and have lost loved ones.   When we lose someone close to us, we may not know how to deal with that loss.   God does.   So, if you have lost a loved one or a dear friend, ask God to help you deal with that pain and loss, and He will.   There are many ways of making good use of the time that God has graciously given us, and these are just a few ways that I have been using my time.    I have also been crafting, that is also time that I get to spend with the Lord, so I really enjoy that time.

The project I want to share with y'all today is another challenge.   This particular challenge was to create a Valentines card and NOT use the typical red and pink colors.    Ok y'all, I'm gonna let y'all in on a secret, I love PURPLE!!!   There was a little lady in the Bible that was the seller of purple cloth.    That is where my love of purple comes from.    As Paul Harvey always said, "now you know the rest of the story".    So, y'all, I love purple and that was the color I chose for my card.   I had a fun time with this project.   Challenges can get you out of your comfort zone.    So, I did take a few pics and wanted to share them with you.

The above pic shows all the items that I used on this card other than the card stock.   I really enjoy using my Cuttlebug for a lot of things.   It does speed the process up if I am just doing a small project, like this.    I  am going to let y'all in on a really good tip.   If you have a manual cutter and can use the sizzix dies, check out the Sizzix website on a regular basis.    See that red box with the clear lid on it, it is a set of alphabets, Pep Squad is the name of it.   That is a $150.00 dollar set of alphas that I got for $4.99.  Yes, you read that right, I got that for 499 pennies!    They have such wonderful deals from time to time.    I really probably should not tell y'all, you won't leave any deals for me. ggggg  

The above two pics are close ups of the products I used.    If you click on the pics, it will give you a larger shot so you can get a better view of the items.    The heart on the end is a sizzix embosslit.    It cuts and embosses in one pass thru the machine.

So, this is the front of the card.   The cardstock I used has thread fibers in it.   You can't tear the cardstock, it has to be cut with scissors.   I cut two of the silver hearts and used one on the outside and I put my "u" on it.    I used the lower case of the alpha for all my letters.   I cut the key hole section from plain white cardstock.   Then I put a base coat of the Inka Gold Metallic Rub on it and then buffed it.   It needed something else, so I finally decided on the Ferro Special Effects Paste.   It really was a hit or miss, but I really liked the way it turned out.

On the inside of the card, on the backside of the front, is where I put my keys with a little knot of purple seam binding tied around each key and then glued them down.    Did I say I love purple?    The keys are cut from black glitter stock.  Can I just say, I love the black glitter stock.   It is fab.

This is the inside of the card, the bottom portion, where your verse or sentiment is usually placed.   I wanted to leave room for a personal message to my "Valentine". ggg    I also used my clear star Sakura gelly roll pen to add a little sparkle to the purple letters. 

Ok, so this is a close up of the key hole section.    The Ferro Special Effects Paste looks like cement, kinda.   It actually has ground stone in it and you can really see it close up.    I just love the stuff, and I wondered when I bought it, if I would even use it.    YES, is the resounding answer.    When it dried really good, it has the look and feel of really old metal of some sort.

You can see the black in that key hole and that is a scrap of the black glitter stock.    I didn't know what to put that special effects paste on with, so I just stuck my finger in it and started smearing it on.   hahaha     I wouldn't recommend you doing it that way.    (My finger hasn't fallen off yet, so I guess it will be ok.)   ggggg

I used liquid pearls to make my little nail heads on my key hole and also for some little bling spots on the front of my card.     Up in the top two or three pics, you will see a tube of Aileens tacky glue.   It is actually pen-like.   You can sort of write the glue on the back of something and it really sticks like "stink"!    I love it.    I hope you have enjoyed seeing this project.    It was a very satisfying project to finish.   I made a dimensional envelope to put it in along with an easel.

February is known as the month of Love.    There is no greater love, known to man, than the love that Jesus Christ has for you and me!    If you know the love of Jesus Christ personally, you know how precious that is.    We all have people in our circles of influence that need to know that same love.    God has placed those people in our lives for a reason.    Are we willing to share the love of Jesus Christ with them?    It's one thing to know Christ, it's a totally different thing to share Christ.    Share the ultimate Valentine, Jesus Christ with someone you love.  I promise, neither of you will regret it.

That's all I have for y'all this evening, Valentines.   So, meet me back here in a few days for another great project and hopefully y'all will have told someone about Jesus Christ and you can tell me about it.    That's the plan, my friends, until then, God bless each and every one of y'all.

Hugs and much love to all of you, Patty