August Card Ministry

Good morning Y'all!     I hope this fine morning finds each and every one of y'all doin' "finer that frog hair"!      Now, that's fine, don't ya know!     Don't y'all just love some of the old timey sayins'?     Well, I sure do.     I think I'm gonna have to keep a note pad with me at all times, and when one comes to mind, or if I hear a good one, I'll write it down so I can share it with y'all, and give y'all a little chuckle for the day.    "Finer than frog hair" always makes me smile.    I'll bet it did you too.

I wanted to share the cards we made at Card Ministry night at church.    There was four of us there on Monday night.    We were down a bit in number, but not in heart.    We always love our time together.     Just sharing with each other a bit about how mean we "may" have been growing up.   hahaha    Not sayin' we were, just sayin' we "may" have been.     There's a big difference.     I am not admitting to or confessing to anything.    hahahaha      Oh well, I think I drifted a bit from the purpose of this post.    hahahaha

So, we made the usual three different cards.    Each one is lovely.    I just love how the ideas that the lady who brings this together each month keeps it fresh and fun with beautiful cards.    Then to see on Sundays the ladies in our Sunday School class looking over them like they are little mini treasures, which, by the way, they are.    So, as usual, I took pics and would love to share them with y'all.

Ok, this first one, simple black and white, but such a statement it makes.    I think it is sooooo elegant.    Very much like the red, white and black one we made in July.    After I got home with mine, I did take my faux stickles and put just a spot on each flower.    You can't see it well at all in this pic, but, in hand, it adds just that little bit of "bling".    Ohhhh, a bit of bling makes me happy!

Ok, now, this one is so gorgeous!!!!!    I just love it.    Perfect for weddings or anniversaries.    I am over the top about this card.

Now, this one, is more on the fun side.   The other two were elegant, now this one is fun.    Do any of y'all remember the folk song back a few years ago that Joan Baez (I do believe it was her, it may not have been though) that went something like this, "If I had a hammer, I'd hammer in the morning, I'd hammer in the evening, all over this land.    I'd hammer out warning, I'd hammer out danger, I'd hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters, all over this land".    Well, that's where my mind went when I seen this card and I started singing the song.    Now, I DO NOT sing good at all y'all!    So, they was happy when I started singing to myself.     hahaha     But, I figure with this card, I have my hammer and I can start hammering out all the things that need hammering.  (News flash: My hubby just informed me, as of 12:37 pm that it was Peter, Paul and Mary that sang the Hammer song.    There was many others that sang it, but the version going thru my head was theirs.   Thanks hubby!)

All the cuts for these cards was cut on her Big Shot machine, or punched from StampinUp punches.    I don't know where the Mr and Mrs die cut came from.    But, I really enjoyed making these cards and I hope you enjoyed looking at them.

I hope that each and every one of y'all have a special day planned today.    I pray that as you go about your day that you will ask God to let you see the world thru His eyes today.    I pray that you will take the time to pray for sick and hurting across the globe.    I pray you will pray for the sick and hurting in your neighborhood, in your families, and in your churches.    There are a lot of people who need hope.     This world does not offer hope.   Our hope is found only in Jesus Christ.

Look at this scripture.    Romans 12:12  "Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, and be constant in prayer."

I immediately see that we are to rejoice in our hope.    My hope is in Jesus Christ.   Jesus said that we are to "take up our cross daily" and follow Him.    Following Jesus is not easy.    If you are a follower of Christ, you know what I mean.    There are many distractions on the road of following Christ.   We must stay focused.    Paul went on to say that we are to be "patient in tribulation".    Really!     Patience and tribulation is a formula that does not mix.    But....this is what Paul told us to do.    "Tribulation" is a temporary situation.    If we hold on to our hope, which is in Christ, it will be worth it.    Some of our major growth spurts in the Lord has come during tribulation.     If you go thru a trying time and you don't grow in your relationship with the Lord, you may find yourself going through it again.    I always try to have the mind set to ask the Lord, what do I need to learn from this situation?     Help me learn what I need to learn, so I don't have to keep repeating this.   Then Paul said to "be in constant prayer".     That is one of the best pieces of advice I could give anyone, just exactly what Paul told us to do.    I always want that constant communication going on.    I thank God for the good and ask Him to help me withstand the bad and thank Him in every situation.    If we are focused on Christ, then the temporary things of this world, as bad as they can be and may be, will not steal our joy.    If I can praise God thru it, then someone else may see that it is possible to  "Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, and be constant in prayer." 

I pray that as you go about your day, that you will be "Rejoicing in hope, being patient in tribulation, and being constant in prayer."    Have a great day.   Thank God for it and share your hope with someone today that may never have heard of the hope in Jesus Christ.

Ladybug, I hope you stay cool in the village today and that you have a great day.   Sweetpea loves you.

I hope you enjoyed your visit here today and that you will come back real soon.   Be blessed in this day, y'all.   God loves y'all, so do I, hugs Patty

July Card Ministry and I'm Home again

Good evening Y'all!!!!    I hope and pray that y'all are enjoying the slightly cooler temps today.    It is just a bit cooler in my neck of the woods than it has been in the last week or so, so I am so thankful for that.    I do not do well at all in the sweltering heat.    When my "petunia" (me) wilts, it ain't "purty"!    And my petunia has been wilted for so long, that it will take more than one little cool day to help me perk up.    gggg

I have been away for a few days and finally got back home and it feels good to be home.    One of the first things I have done is get my hair cut.    Oh my, I needed a cut so bad.    Does anyone remember the mops that looked like stringy hair, well, that's what my hair had began to look like.    Thick, hot, and stringy!    No more!!!!    It is now off my shoulders!!   Yay!!

Before I went to Kentucky, I had went to Card Making Ministry night at church and we made three beautiful cards.    I did not get them posted before I left, so I thought I would post them today.    I am always in awe of my friend that gets all the cards together.    She always comes up with fun and fresh cards.    There was five of us that was at card making and as usual, we all had a ball.    It is always fun to get together with friends and have a good time while serving the Lord.   For people who say Christians don't have fun, they just haven't been to one of our card making evenings.

We made three cards again, that is the usual number.   I took pics and wanted to share them with you.    I hope you enjoy them and can get ideas and inspirations from them.

I really like the freshness of this first card.    The first layer of the card front was embossed with an embossing folder and then the end was cut with a matching die.   I love the flowers.   We cut them with the big shot and Stampin Up die and and then stamped them with the matching stamps.   Then we put some pearl halves in the center of the flowers.   The leaves was punched with a Stampin Up punch.    We used a 1/8 th inch wide piece of grosgrain ribbon and taped it to the back side of the first layer of the card front.   Then attached that layer to the teal layer of cardstock and then attached that to the card.

I think this is my favorite card.    It reminds me of a hula skirt.   I just think it is the cutest thing.    The lady in charge of the card ministry had gotten a new toy and she is always ready to share with us.    She had gotten a pair of scissors from Stampin Up that cuts several strips at one time.   So these little strips was soooo easy to cut.    I'm pretty sure the yellow band across the top layer of fringe is also a Stampin Up die, as well as the little flower and the button.    The little salmon colored spots just make me happy.   I love this card, and hope you do too.

This was the more elegant of the three cards.    Red, black and white.    It really doesn't get any more elegant than that.   I love the little blinged up bird in the birdcage.   The red ribbon was originally supposed to be wrapped to the back side of the black layer, just underneath the patterned paper, but I forgot it and did not want to redo my card.    So, when I got home, I dug around and found my red ribbon and cut a couple of pieces and knotted them together and trimmed the ends pretty close to the knot.   I then used one of my home-made glubbers and stuck it to the corner of the white layer.   I love that we can make them all personalized in some way.    There is no such thing as a mistake, just creative license.    ggggg     I hope you enjoyed seeing the cards we made.

As I leave you this evening, I leave you with this scripture:  Habakkuk 2:4  "Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith."

Habakkuk, the prophet was asking God some hard questions and one of those questions was, how God could use such a wicked people as the Chaldeans to bring about His purpose.    And in the dialog between God and Habakkuk, God showed him that the righteous shall live by his faith.    His faith in God.    What is the distinguishing mark of  a righteous person?    Their faith.    When all goes wrong, they persist in their faith.    The righteous will "not" be puffed up in pride.    The righteous will "not" be oppressing anyone.  

Does anyone ever try to make you feel like you are less than they are, in your service to the Lord or in your worship or in your relationship with the Lord?   If they do, guess who the one is, with the not so great relationship with the Lord?  Not you!!!   It has been my experience, that when someone is doing that, they are trying to make themselves feel better about themselves, (puffed up with pride)  by trying to use me and my relationship with the Lord as their measuring stick.   Never compare yourself or let yourself be compared to anyone or by anyone.  The only measure we are to use is God.    And according to God's measure, we ALL fall way short of His Glory.    Don't justify your behavior based on mine and I should never justify my behavior based on yours.    Both of us will come up way way short of what God expects from us.

Those who are "puffed up" with pride will try to force their attitudes on you.    It has nothing to do with righteousness.    A friend of mine told me that some of her friends had told her that she was "settling for mediocre" in her relationship with the Lord.    I told her to brush that conversation off her shoulders and to not let that settle on her.    A lot of people build them selves up by trying to making someone else feel bad.    I told her to let God be the One to speak to her in regards to her relationship with Him.    I have been around people like that my whole life and all they have succeeded in helping me see, is that I don't need what they have.    Puffed up pride always tries to belittle other people or hold them captive to envy and jealousy.    God is the One in whom you and I have placed our faith!    Wait on the Lord to reveal to you what He wants you to know, He will!    If, while speaking with someone who claims to be a friend, you end up feeling bad about your relationship with the Lord, or you feel like your relationship does not measure up to theirs, don't feel bad and don't fall for their evil intentions.   A true friend will "help" you have a better relationship with the Lord, without making you feel bad about the relationship you do have.   We are either a stepping stone or a stumbling block.   My prayer is that we will always be found being stepping stones.    We never want to be a stumbling block for anyone.    My faith is in God, alone.     Not in the words, actions or deeds of any other.    I pray that your faith, too, is in God alone.

I pray for you to have a wonderful night of rest.    May tomorrow be a great day for each of you.    Thank you for visiting tonight.   I hope and pray that you can take something good away with you tonight.

Ladybug, I pray you are doing good and enjoying the cooler temps.    Have a great night.    Sweetpea loves you!

Goodnight, Y'all.    God loves you, and so do I.     hugs, Patty

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

A couple of Sympathy Cards

Good morning Y'all.    It is approximately 9:55 am and it is gloomy and rainy and windy here.    We did have a couple of really beautiful days here and so happy and thankful for those.    It doesn't take long to get spoiled to the wonderful weather, does it?    Then, reality sets in and bad weather is our friend, once again.    I am reminded that, "This too, shall pass."    I sure hope it does, and soon.    I have friends in other parts of the U.S. that are still dealing with bitter cold temps.    I continue to lift my friends in prayer and hopefully, soon, it will be warmer and nicer weather for these folks.    Hang in there my friends.

I have been in my craft room playing and recently, I had to make a couple of sympathy cards for some very dear friends.    Never something that we ever want to have to make, but death is a part of life and if our family and friends are in a relationship with Father God through the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ, then, we know that they have gone home to be with Lord.     We all have experienced the hurt caused by the death of a loved one.     That doesn't make it any easier at the time we are going through it, but knowing other people care does help.     So, I wanted to make a couple of cards.    Here is how they turned out.

The first pic is of them side by side.   The second pic shows the one on which I used my Spellbinder Shapabilities Die D'lites two layer cross.    I cut it with my Cuttlebug and used my Inka Gold metallic rub, purple on the bottom layer and silver on the top layer.    I used my Tim Holtz distressing tool and roughed up the edges of the light purple cardstock mat I used, then used a marker to color the edges, before placing it on the darker purple mat, which I then placed on the card front.

The third pic is of the inside front of the card.   I used a scripture stamp and a church that was cut out form StampinUp punch that my friend at church uses sometimes when we make cards at church for the Card Making Ministry.    I punched out two or three extras the last time we used her punch and have been saving them for such a card.

The fourth pic is of the second card.   I have a set of Sizzix thin dies and they are square scallops in five different sizes.    I think this was the largest size.    I stamped my image and then used my water color pencils and blender pen.   I then used my die and Cuttlebug and cut out the image.    I did not want a square image, so I relocated the die on the edge of the stamped piece, just realigning the scallops on the sides and cut it again turning it into a rectangle instead of the square.    I inked the edges and attached it to the card front.   Then I stamped my sentiment and found a dove image and stamped it in a light gray color.

The bottom pic is of the inside card front.   I used a stamp that looks like an iron cross and stamped it in blue and then the sentiment at the bottom of the inside card front.

I enjoyed making the cards, just not the reason for which I was making them.    When I am making a card specifically for someone, that's when I can have the opportunity to pray for them while I am making it and it strengthens my relationship with Father God, knowing He hears my prayers.

Psalm 46:10 says "Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth."

Do you ever have to just "be still"?    Sometimes, I do.   And here lately has been one of those times when I have had to just "be still and know that God is God" in my life.    When the hustle and bustle of every day life gets to be so loud that I can't hear the Lord, for all the other noise, I have to "be still", and get back to that place of hearing God in the stillness.    Sometimes, being a people pleaser, I put the requests of others higher on my list than I should and it makes for a noisy and busy existence and nothing gets done.    If you know what I'm talking about, hit the stop button, "be still and know that God is God" in your life, too.     As Christians, we are called to serve others, but when serving others looses it's joy, we may have to step back for a little while, until we can hear God clearly again.

I hope and pray the rest of your day is absolutely splendid, regardless of what it looks like outside, I hope and pray you have a "Son"-filled heart on the inside!

I hope y'all have enjoyed your visit today.   If you have, tell someone about it and maybe they will enjoy it also.     Just know that God loves you and wants to have a right relationship with you through the provision He has made, and that provision is Jesus Christ.    

God loves y'all, and so do I!  Blessings of peace, love and stillness. Hugs, Patty

More cards

Good morning y'all!   I do hope that this beautiful morning finds each and every one of y'all happy, healthy, and excited to be a part God's wonderful creation.   We have been experiencing weather of all sorts here lately.   One day it may be in the 50's, close to 60, and then the next, it may be at -3*.   One week ago right now, as a matter of fact, it was at -3.   This morning it is 32*.   32* is usually considered cold in the south, so, -3* is almost unbelievable.   Never fear, I have my camera ready at all times, for just such an occasion and I got a pic of the thermometer on the deck.  

As you can see, it was really cold last Tuesday morning.    Some of my friends are talking about having more snow than they care for, some are talking about very pleasant and mild weather, some have been in drought conditions for a while, and some of us would like to see a little more snow this year.   Wherever you may be, I pray for you to stay warm, have plenty to eat, and have an abundance of love to share with whomever may need it.

As we talk about Love, of course February is the month of Love.   Last night was card making night for the Card Making Ministry at church.    There was two of us again, but we still had a great time.   The lady that started this ministry does prep work in order for us to make the cards.   She cuts all the basic card shapes and layers, and gets together everything needed to complete each card, in order for us to complete at least 16 cards of each one.   We always make 3 different cards.   So she is busy, busy, busy for quite a while, just to make this happen once a month.   But, the people that we send cards to enjoy it.   Who doesn't like to get a hand made, with love, card?   This is the 3 cards we made last night.

The one above, we used a punch and punched the hearts out.   We used the same punch on the pennants above each heart.   We just put the cardstock in the punch enough to just barely nip up into the card stock and then it fit perfectly over the heart.   Then we had a really small punch and punched the small little polka dot hearts to put on the red hearts and then added a little bling to the center.   Hey, who doesn't like a little bling?   Then we put our sentiment on the bottom and tied a little bow to finish it off.

This little cutie was a fun one to make.   The little girl was stamped and then we used water color pencils to color her.   Of course, I made my little girl with a purple dress and socks and bow.    And if you click on the pictures and make them larger, squint just a little bit and you can see the teeny, tiny, itty, bitty half pearls that we used for buttons under her chin.  hahaha   I just love this little knock-kneed, pigeon toed cutie, with her finger up close to her chin, thinking, "Do I give my heart away, or do I keep it?"   Whatever she decides to do with it, she will know that "She is the love of God's heart and God is the love of her heart".

This last one was embossed and then we cut the center out with a die and her big shot.  I love the embossing folder we used for this one.   Then the flower is one of our favorite "go-to" flowers.   If I am not mistaken, I believe it is a Stampin Up die, not sure though.   I know we love it, whom ever the maker is.

Well, that's what we done last night.   I hope you enjoyed looking at them and maybe you can get some ideas for yourself.   I have some swaps to try to get started on today.   I hope and pray that you have something fun and crafty to do today.

As I leave you this morning, I leave you with, perhaps, one of the most beloved descriptions of Love  in all of God's Word.   This is the perfect picture of what love should look like.

1 Corinthians 13:4-13   4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

We see clearly what love should look like.   Sometimes the people we love may be hard to love, but we surely must try, with the help of God, through Jesus Christ, to love one another.  I also love what Paul was speaking about in verse 11.  Sometimes, folks, we just need to grow up, act our age, and be done with childish ways and behavior.    You do what you know to do, when you learn to do better, do better.   A 20, 30, 40...year old has no business acting like they are still 8 or 10 years old.   Grow up, in your relationship with the Lord and other people.   Verse 13 tells us that of faith, hope, and love, love is the greatest of these!   And it is my friends!   The love of Jesus Christ took away my sins.   Oh, I still sin, we all do.  Do you worry?  If you do, you sin.  That's how easy it is to sin.   But, I know that I can place my worries in the nail scarred hands of my Savior.   That is Love!

That's all for now y'all.   Tell someone you love them.   Call someone Valentine today, just because you can.  More than anything else, tell someone that "If Christ is all you have, Christ is all you need!"

Have a blessed day y'all! hugs, Patty