A New Project and Happy Sunday

Good afternoon Y'all!   I hope and pray that where ever you happen to live on God's creation, that it's as beautiful there as it is here, in my neck of the woods, today!    It is a little cool, crisp, but it is absolutely beautiful.   The sun is shining, some of the early flowers are in full bloom, a lot of trees are blooming.  (For me, allergy season!)   Every thing is beginning to wake up from the long winter's nap.   It is refreshing, I must say.    For those of you dealing with snow and the threat of it, hang on, just a little longer, if you can.   It will be worth the wait.

Yesterday, I was fortunate to receive a beautiful cut file from the creator of this file.   It is absolutely breathtaking to look at!   Debbie, at http://paperpulse.blogspot.com/2014/04/sharing-technique-from-patty-used-for.html (she is in my list of blogs that I follow on the right hand side of the screen) has made the most beautiful design, shadow box fashion depicting the Crucifixion of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.    She is generously "giving" this file away to anyone who requests it.   You must e-mail her and ask her for it.   She has a place on her blog to email her.   It is SO very much worth asking for it, let me tell you.   She love's the Lord so much that feels she can't and shouldn't charge for it and doesn't want to see others selling it.   And I don't blame her one bit.

After she sent me the file yesterday morning, I dl-ed it to my computer and opened it up and looked at in my software and read the instruction file that came with it, and by the way, if you get this file, you MUST read the instructions, or at least you "should" read the instructions.    I was really excited about it.   I went to my art sanctuary, or the "executive suite" is what my wonderful hubby refers to it as.  ggg   Anyway, I got it all cut out before lunch.   I stopped and fixed lunch, hubby took a nap before going in to work and after he was gone off to work, I got back to my project.   I read the instructions again and prayed a little about it and started.   It didn't take very long to put it together.   I got to the last part, which is the very back piece and this is what I done differently to what Debbie done on hers.

I am gonna put up the pics and then when we get to the last one, I will tell you and it will be almost self-explanatory.   I hope you enjoy looking at the pics.

 It is really hard to get great shots of this, but I tried.

You will want to try to find a light to sit behind the box so the light shines thru.  My pics all look like b&w pics, but I assure you, they were taken in color mode.

 I love how so very realistic this is!!!  Debbie really hit this design out of the park!!

This one here is a little better in a sense, that you can see everything a little better.   You can see the colorful background in the very back.

Just a hint, if you click on a pic, it will bring them all up in a larger screen and you will see them better.

Now, the above pic shows the background of my shadow box.   Instead of putting another layer of solid white for the back, I took a piece of vellum and cut it to size and got out my little dew drops and used navy blue and eggplant and then used my Tim Holtz blending tool and just sort of smeared them around a little bit.   When I put it on the back of my shadow box, it was exactly as I hoped it would be.   It kinda reminded me of storm clouds and when Jesus Christ was on the Cross, it grew dark and was dark for three hours.   This technique, such as it is, gave me what I was looking for.   When you put  a light behind it, it really shows up as being the darkened sky that we can imagine.

Debbie, I thank you more than you can ever know for such a lovely file.   Such a powerful reminder of exactly what Christ done for me and for you and all of humanity on the Cross!!!

My Pastor touched on this a bit this morning in his sermon.   Not trying to preach his sermon, but this particular part of his message really spoke to me as something I could share here.   Jesus didn't go to the Cross for Himself, there was no reason for Him to go thru it for Himself.   He done it for us.   For us to be able to be in a right relationship with God, The Father, He went to the Cross!   In Mark 8:29 "But what about you?" Jesus asked, "Who do you say I am?"  Peter answered, "You are the Christ, Son of the Living God!!!!."   When Peter recognized Him as Christ, in essence, Peter was saying, "You are the Son of God!   You are not just a good man; not just another prophet; not just a good teacher; not Elijah; but You, YOU are The Son of God!"

When someone asks you about Jesus, who do you say He is?   Think about it.   What do you tell others about Jesus?  Who do you say Jesus is?   That is probably one of the most important questions you'll ever answer.   It will determine how you live in this life and it will determine your eternal destiny.   I haven't always answered that question like Peter, "You are the Christ".   There was a time in my life when Christ was not first place, and it showed.   Now, I'm not sayin' I'm perfect.   If you are waiting for perfection in me, you will have a long wait.   But, what I am sayin', "Christ has covered my imperfections, so much so, that when God looks at me, He sees His Son, Jesus Christ!"    Now, when you look at me, if you're looking for imperfections, oh boy, you will definitely see them.   But if you are looking at me thru the eyes of God, you'll see Jesus.   It all depends on "who you say Jesus is". 

I hope and pray that y'all have a great rest of the day!    I hope and pray that y'all have enjoyed what you have seen and read here today.  If you have, tell a friend.
I hope you come back here real soon to see what else I have been up to.  You can't never tell what you will find here.   gggg

Hey, Ladybug, Sweet Pea loves you!   God loves y'all, and so do I.   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

Poly Shrink - first attempt

Good evening y'all.    How's the weather where you are?     I do hope and pray that everyone's weather is getting better.     The highest it got here today was 37* and the ice and snow did do a little melting.     If the forecast holds true, it should be up to about 53* tomorrow.      Yay!!!!      I will be doing a louder Yay if the temp does actually reach the anticipated 53*.       If you hear someone yelling tomorrow, it may be me, yelling with joy as the ice and snow melts.     When it gets a little warmer, we will have the cleanup to do of the pine tree limbs in front of the garage.      While they are still weighted down with ice and snow, we are kinda leery of getting beneath the trees to move the limbs.    Could cause some more branches to shed off the trees and onto us.     Not something we want to do.

Here back I had ordered some "10 mil Polyshrink artist's grade shrink plastic" made by Lucky Squirrel.     I have never played with any shrink plastic, ever.     So, I didn't know what to expect.    I didn't know how the end results should look.      I knew nothing what so ever about it.      Basically, a big shot in the dark for me.     I did say it was "10 mil".    Realistically, that means nothing to me.     I know it has to do with the thickness.     When most people are speaking of shrink plastic, it is usually in the terms of 0.07 or 0.05 thicknesses, I think, but this was "10 mil".     I ordered black and clear.    I have only experimented with the black.  I did remember to try to take pics along the way as I played with it.

So, without further ado, I will show the pics and tell you a little of what I done in each step.     It was fun, but I still don't know if it turned out right or not.

I just wanted to show you what the pkg actually said about the thickness.   

Here, I had used my cuttlebug and Tim Holtz sizzix tattered floral bigz die to cut my pieces and also a sizzix mover and shaper die of a bow.    I used a piece of sandpaper on the pieces before I colored them, per instructions.    I used three colors of my Inka gold metallic rub, gold silver and purple.    I love that stuff.    It actually has bees wax in it and it blends and rubs on so wonderfully.     I colored each piece and also took some of the scrap and cut it into small bits with my scissors and placed it all on a piece of cardboard, as the instructions says to do.

The above pic shows the shrunken pieces on the card board.    I don't know if you can tell how thick they became, but they are about the thickness of the quarter that I used just to show scale.    The instructions says it shrinks down to about  45% of it original size.      So, it actually shrinks 55%.     More than half it's original size.

This is an up close shot of one of the flowers and a piece of scrap in the back.

Another flower, up close.   Notice how the coloring became scaly.

This is the smallest of the flowers on the die.     It actually cuts out about the size of a quarter, but it shrank down to smaller than a dime.     And a couple of other scraps.

This is the shrunk pieces laying on top of the box that the die came in showing the full size cut of the three largest flowers.      The flower at the bottom of the pic became very distorted and it wasn't even salvageable, so I tossed it.

So, the above pic is just after I put a coating of glossy accents on it to preserve the flaky coloring.

This one is after the glossy accents had dried.

I think they look pretty cool, but I haven't figured out how to use them yet.    Maybe on a 3d box or something like that.     

I will be trying it some more with other dies and seeing what else I can come up with.      These shrank so much, that I don't know how one could use it in jewelry, since you have to make a hole in before you put it in the oven.     It would have to be one honkin' big hole to keep it from just disappearing when placed in the oven.      So, I just don't know.     As I said, this is my first experience what so ever with plastic shrink.      I may have to get a diff brand to try just to see if it does anything diff or more of the same.      I can't say whether I like it or dislike it.    The flowers are cool, though.

That's it for this go around.   I hope you may find this useful in some way.    If not useful, maybe a little entertaining.    hahaha     I hope you have a wonderful rest of the evening and a great night.

Before I leave you, I want to leave you with a fav scripture of mine.

Matthew 7:7  Ask, and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

Who are you dependent on; what are you yearning for; and how persistent are you?     Are your prayers based on the fulfillment of God's purposes in you life?    We should never give up seeking God.    We should ask God for more knowledge, love, wisdom, patience, understanding.    When we ask God for what He desires to give us, then He will answer those prayers.    When we keep on asking and keep on seeking and keep on knocking, then we show our faith, our focus and our follow-through.    So, as a follower of Christ, I keep asking, seeking and knocking on a daily basis.    I want to be open to God for His guidance and instructions for my life.    I hope you do to.

God bless y'all and hope to see you right back here real soon.   Hugs and much love, Patty

Happy Sunday!!!

Greetings and Happy Sunday to each of y'all!  I do hope and pray that you have had a great day in the Lord!!!  It has been cold here in my neck of the woods.  I do believe it has forgotten how to warm up.  Oh well, it will warm up when it needs too, I guess.

We had a wonderful time at church this morning!  Our small church has a choir of 18 and you would have thought you was listening to a choir of 100!!!  They presented the cantata this morning, titled "Bethlehem".  Oh, that y'all could have heard it!  I know that the heavenly choir was singing right along with our choir!  It was absolutely wonderful!!!

I have had a couple of small projects going on.  Nothing big at all, but just fun.  One of my friends in an online group was sharing pics recently of a poinsettia that she had made from the Tim Holtz line of dies.  It was beautiful and I knew I wanted that die, so I found it on a great sale online on Black Friday and ordered it.  I also ordered some new white marker pens.  So, I have been playing with the poinsettia die and the white pens.  And just wanted to share.

The pic above is of the souffle pens.  You have to write slowly with them.  I do good to write, much less, write slow.  But, I do love the effect.  It is a little raised and as you can see, I used really dark cardstock and I got really great coverage.  On a couple of the book marks I also used my liquid pearls.  Love those also.

This is the cut poinsettia.  I just used plain white cardstock that I printed old newspaper ads on and then die cut them.  After I cut them, I manipulated them with my McGill flower tools, and then I inked them with green and red ink.  I used a heavy coat of glitter glue on them to get the sparkle.

Here is a poinsettia completed, one in the process, and then the mini poinsettia that I put on the cards, boxes and easels that I have been making.  Again, my pics are not really great.  But, I keep trying, really I do! ggg

I hope you enjoyed seeing a little of what I have been up to.  I hope and pray that at some point in this Season of Joy, that you will find time to celebrate the birth of the most amazing Baby ever to have been born!  His name is Jesus Christ!  His name is above all names!  He is our Savior!  His name is Wonderful!  He will never leave you!  He will never fail you!  He will stick closer than a brother!  He loves you!  God gave us the most important Gift that mankind could possibly ever imagine.  God gave this Gift to us!  You can't work for it.  You can't earn it.  You will never be good enough to deserve it!  You don't have to work for it, you don't have to earn it, you don't have to be good enough!  You just have to receive the free gift of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of your life.  I pray that if you haven't yet received this Gift, that you will, this Christmas.  Jesus Christ was born for you and me.  Let this be the Merriest Christmas ever, by accepting the Gift!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

God loves y'all, so do I!  hugs and be blessed, Patty

Sharing Swap pics

Good evening Y'all!!!  I am so very happy and grateful to tell you that I am on the uphill swing with my muscle spasm.  Praise the Lord!  I do appreciate all your prayers.

I had mentioned earlier, a post or so back, about some swaps for November.  Well, I do know that some of them have been received so I thought I would go ahead and post some pics.

I had already spoken about this in a previous post with pics, on Oct. 24th., I think.  So instead of re-hashing what I had already said, I will ask you to please find the post and read about this.  I will say, that I do hope and pray the swap receiver enjoys this.

This is a set of six gift tags for another swap.  I really enjoyed this little project.  It isn't anything fancy or elaborate, but it was fun.  As I look at this pic, I realized that I did not get pics of the completed project.  Well, shucks!!!  I do hope that the lady that receives these will be happy with them.  The little snowman makes me smile.

This is what the backs look like.

This is my ATC's, Artist Trading Cards.  The background paper had a very light mottled design on it with a hint of text.  Upon looking at it, it reminded me of the distance when it is snowing.  So, I stamped the pine tree, and highlighted it with a white Uniball marker.  Love it!  I then applied a light coat of Glossy Accents.  Then, I applied a thin coat of aurora bourealis glitter glue.  After that, I stamped the little sentiment.  I had used a Sizzix die to punch snowflakes and I glittered and layered them also.  I also used my Tim Holtz die and cut the cardinals.

 For a final touch, I put a sparkly jewel in the center of the snowflake.  The back of the ATC has all the personal info.

Since they were very dimensional with the snowflake, I made a small envelope to put them in for ease of shipping, I hope.  I made a little band to hold the envelope shut.  

Well, that's it.  Thanks for looking.  I do hope that you have enjoyed what you have seen.  I would love your thoughts and ideas, if you wish to share.  I look forward to the next swaps coming up.

I do pray you to have a great night's rest.  I pray that you have a wonderful Friday and weekend!  Find time in there somewhere to spend with the One who created you.  Thank God for all He's done for you.  Praise Him!!  Love to Y'all!!

Good Night.

Hugs and be blessed, till next time, Patty

Cardinals....

Well, the mocking birds keep all of our cardinals scared away.  Ever once in a while there will be one or two.  So, this morning, I decided I would do something about that!  What did I do, you ask?  I made my own!!!  See...

Ok, come on now, what did you think?  Be honest. ggg  Well, I did make them.  With a little help anyway.  This is the Tim Holtz cardinal and poinsettia movers and shapers.  I cut the poinsettias also, but haven't done anything with them yet.  I was just so stinkin happy with my cardinals I wanted to show you.   Woooppppeee!!!!

I also got the poinsettias made just a few minutes ago and am adding pics of them.  The greenery is from something else and I just used what was left over, works for me.

This is four of the Tim Holtz poinsettias all blinged up.  The center one, that is just a tad larger is a Penny Duncan file.  I love Penny and I love her designs!!!

These were a lot of fun to make.  They really were.  I will be using them more, now.  When I first got the TH movers and shapers cardinal and poinsettia die, I was disappointed at how small they were, but they are great!!!

Be blessed today in name of Jesus Christ!!!  Tell someone you know that Jesus loves them.

hugs, Patty