February Swaps

Good afternoon, y'all!    I pray that y'all are having a wonderful, fun filled and crafty day!    It has been raining here in my neck of the woods most of the day, with lots of heavy wind.    Seems like when it's rainy, I kinda have a rainy mood.    So, the best place for me today is right here, getting caught up with some projects for y'all to see.    I have been busy here lately, but today, has really been a lazy day for me.    I think I have been trying to refuel, since a great weekend.    We had a very full day at church yesterday.    It was just a great day to be in the presence of the Lord!    So, today has been a slow day, with plans for a busy week ahead.

I have gotten all my swaps for the month of February in the mail, some have already reached their destinations and some are still in the mail system hoping to be received tomorrow.    I made a card, a tag, artist trading cards, and ornament.   I did make pics of course, and I want to share them with you.

The above two pics are of my atc.   It was supposed to be "pastels" in hopes of Spring being just around the corner.    I stamped my image in Memento london fog, which is gray.   Then I used my water color pencils and a blender pen.    I stamped my sentiment and when all was dry, I took three of my little Studio ink disks and just lightly touched the edges all around to color the background and then I used a lot of my glitter glues to get the bling going.   hahaha  Gotta bling!

The above three pics are of the "green and Spring" card swap.    So the green is my background and I also used my green water color pencil on her dress.    I used a new stamp I had just gotten, and I do love the elegance of her.   I stamped the sentiment, added a little bling and then I brushed the whole layer of the lady with a coat of Deco Art Glamour Dust, Ice Crystal Paint.   Love, love, love it!    It is a new product I had just gotten and I will be using it a lot!    I put a couple of purchased stickers and some stick on gems.    If you will notice in the pic below, I also added some hand made flowers.   The flowers were cut with a die that is about the size of my thumbnail.   Then I used a quilling tool to roll the tiny flower and glued it.    Then I cut the little leaves to go with the flowers.    They really are so tiny.    I will make a pic of the flower with a dime and show you later on.    Click on the pics to enlarge and hopefully you can see the tiny flowers better.

This is a pic of all my swaps together.    I hope you can see the tiny flowers on the card above.    There is an ornament between the card and the atc.   That is the ornament I made for the ornament swap.    I'm in this with a friend and we do this each month and we are having a great time with these.    The ones I have been making are themed for the year and I'm calling them "Victorian Ornaments".    I am searching for victorian style, free images and using them for my ornaments.    I love them and they are fun to make.   This one was to have a tea pot on it for a sign of "hospitality".    It is two sided, with a diff pic on the back.   I am so mad at me, that I did not get a pic of the ornament by itself.   I could just smack myself.

The above four pics are of my tag swap.    It is the brick wall technique.   I have already showed you one that I had done earlier for another swap that had gotten lost in the mail and the purple one was a replacement for my friend.    This is the one for this months swap.    I am so in love with technique!    I cut my tag on my Cameo Silhouette.    It is from the Silhouette Store.    I enlarged it and cut two layers and ran a layer through my 5 inch Xyron and stuck the two layers together.    I lightly inked the edges of the tag with a brown ink disk.   Then I took a piece of white Georgia Pacific paper and stamped my crackled background with olive green and then I stamped my rose.   I colored the rose with several diff colors of water color pencils.  After it was dry,  I cut it in brick fashion, being careful not to loose the placement of each piece.   After I got it glued down and that dried, I then added a little faux stickles for sparkle and bling.   I stamped my sentiment and then put my ribbons and threads through the loop and it was finished.   Then I had fun with my GooseBumps!    I just love the Goosebumps!    I loved making this months swaps!    I hope you enjoyed looking at them.

As I leave you this evening I ask, "What have you done today?"   Has today been important to you in any way?    Every Sunday at church, one of our Ministry Leaders will ask the congregation what today is?    There is one faithful saint that he will always call on to tell him what today is.   She will always say, "This is the day the Lord has made; we will be glad and rejoice in it." Psalm 118:24

I pray that y'all have been able to say that you have been glad and rejoiced in today!    Every day is not going to be a perfect day, or live up to our expectations.   But, when we have a proper perspective on every day, we can always find something great in it.   Every day of your life and mine has been given to us by the Creator of the day!!!    I don't know about y'all, but I cherish that!   God created the universe in an orderly and reasonable manner.   Much thought went into creation.    With that in mind, have we all been glad and rejoiced in this day?    I sure hope so!    God really had all of us in mind when he spoke the universe into existence!    Let's determine in ourselves, that we will be glad and rejoice in every day that God allows us to be a part of!   Sounds like a plan!

God bless y'all!   Thanks for stopping by and I hope y'all make plans to visit again, soon.

Hugs and much love, Patty

Tag for a Swap

Howdy Doody Folks!!!    I sure hope y'all are having a great week.    I know that many of our friends are still dealing with horrendous weather.     I keep praying for all of y'all who are trying to make it from one day to the next with all the snow and cold you have had.    We have had a lot of "much" below normal temps, but we have been very blessed in our neck of the woods to have missed out on most of the "precipitation" weather.     For that, I am so thankful, but I do still keep everyone in my prayers.    I just know that spring will eventually make it.    When it does, I promise not to complain "too much" about it getting to hot or being hot. You have my permission to remind me, later on, if I do start complaining. ggg

Since it's been cold and I don't like to be out and about in the cold weather, I have been in my craft room more here lately.     And, I have been having a ball!!

This is a tag I made for a swap.     The tag I made and mailed off in January, did not make it to the person I mailed it to.    Thank you USPS! gggg    My friend was very gracious about it and said I did not have to make another one to replace it.     I love getting the little packages of artsy goodness in the mail, and I also love sending them.    So, I wanted to make another one for her.    And I must say, I am so happy I did.    This was a new technique to me and I am hooked!

 

This is called the "brick wall technique".    I know I did not do it exactly like the was the tutorial called for it to be done, but, that's ok, as far as I'm concerned.    We all have the creative freedom to put our own spin on something and I did on this tag. 

 

 

A brief description of how I done mine is, I actually cut the purple tag with my Silhouette Cameo.     I cut two tags and put one piece of it through my Xyron and then put the two pieces together.    I love the feel of a beefy tag.    I took my white card stock and used my fav "crackled" background stamp, then I stamped my rose.    I used my water color pencils and colored it in.    I then took a lite fuchsia ink disk and tamped it down over all of the white area.    I then cut it in strips a little less than 1/2 inch.    I then cut the strips in brick fashion.    Being real careful not to mess up the pieces and keep them in order.     Then I took my black ink disk and inked all the edges.    The black was a real deep contrast, but I thought it worked really well.    After it all dried, I started at the bottom and worked myself up to the top.    Placing each piece and leaving a little space between each piece and each line.    Then I stamped the word "love" up in the right hand corner.     After that dried, I put my threads through the hole at the top and laid it in my spray box and I sprayed it with Goosebumps.     I really love the looks and feel of Goosebumps.    Well, there you have it, my tag.    I hope you enjoyed seeing it.    I certainly had a ball making it.

Be on the look out here, because I have a whole lot more stuff to show y'all in the near future.    I just can't get it all uploaded fast enough.    So, keep checking back from time to time.    Ok.

John 3:16. For God so loVed the world thAt He gave His onLy bEgotten SoN, thaT whoever believes In Him should Not perish but have Everlasting life.

As I leave you tonight, I leave you with warm Valentine wishes!     Did you know that God gave you and me a Valentine?     It's in the verse above.     Can you see our Valentine as you read the Scripture?    Oh, it's there!     Yes, I know you see it.    Had you ever seen it before?    Do you have any idea how much you and I mean to God?    We mean so much to Him that He gave us a special Valentine.    Jesus Christ is our Valentine!    Thank you, Father, that you loved us enough to give us the very best that You had to give, Jesus Christ!

Happy Valentines Day to all of you!!! Much love and hugs, Patty

Tag for a Shower

Good evening y'all!   I do hope that you are enjoying a fabulous Saturday with the one you love.   I know I am.   I hope you are having some sunshine today.  The weather, now that is a subject and a half, isn't it?    We got up this morning with an inch or so of snow and when the sun came out it really blasted the snow away.    But, it still feels really cold.    I keep having warm, spring thoughts and that brings on hot flashes, (hahahaha) so I just believe I will quit thinking about the weather and play in my craft room.   How's that?   Sounds like a plan to me.

So, play in my craft room, I did!   We are having a Bridal Shower for one of our young ladies at church tomorrow after morning services.   I had gotten her gift and started to just go ahead and buy the usual small note card to go on it with some kind of bow.   I thought, naaa, don't want to do that.   I'll see what I can come up with, and then if necessary, I'll buy something.   So I took out my Cuttlebug and some dies and a couple of hours later, here's what I had. 

This is what I came up with.   Yes, it is very non-conventional, but you know what, so am I.   I took 2 sheets of 4x6, lite purple cardstock and ran one sheet of it thru my Xyron machine and then stuck the two pieces together to beef up the weight of it.   I used my Sizzix postage stamp die and cut it.   The cross is Spellbinders d-lite die.    The heart is a Nellie Snellen die.   The round rosette on top of the heart is a small Sizzix rosette. 

I punched a hole in the upper right hand corner of the stamp tag and pulled a loop of all the yarns through the hole and the pulled the ends through the loop and snugged them down on the corner.   You can't see the yarns very well, but you will in another pic.

I laid the tag on top of the gift and taped it on with tape across the threads of yarn at the top of the tag and then popped the heart on with dimensional foam.   She should be able to take both off and be able to save them if she so desires.

I was thrilled with the way the heart came out.   I took one of my little ink pads and inked the top  and the edges of the rosette after I had put them together.   If I had it to do over again, I would ink all the edges as soon as I took them from the cuttlebug.   Then I would have inked them again, after I was done with it.   But, I am still happy with the overall affect.   Then I put a piece of bling on the very top of the rosette.   Hey, you know me, gotta have a little bling! ggg

I love this cross from Spellbinders.   I punched that out of just plain old Georgia Pacific cardstock.   Why?   That's what I had.   I took my Viva Decor Inka Gold in violet and rubbed that on, then I took the silver, same product, and buffed that over the violet.   I absolutely love that stuff!   Then I put a small half pearl in each corner of the cross.

On the background of the cardstock itself, I took a stamp called "crackled background" by Delta and inked it up in red and stamped all over the stamp after I cut it out.   I also used a Dew Drop satiny silver on the edges.  I really like the way it turned out.   The red on the lite purple looks really neat.  

I used my new fiskars stamp helper thingy, I forgot what it's called, and stamped the "congratulations" on first.  Then I had another unmounted stamp.   It is red rubber on a thin gray foam pad with no reverse image, so, I got it off kilter some.   Believe it or not, I never even noticed it, until I seen the pics.   I was ready to smack myself silly.  Then I remembered, nothing about me is perfect, why should I expect everything I do to be perfect.   I ain't, it ain't!   So, there you go.

I thought this scripture is perfect for any bride and most surely for this precious young lady.

This is the last pic and I took the tag threads and brought them to the top so you could see them a little better.   I was really pleased with the overall finish of my project today.    It did not start out to be a blog post, but hey, what can I say?   I was so stinkin' excited I had to share it with y'all!   As always, I appreciate your looking at my project and I hope you can use it as inspiration or ideas.

As I leave you this evening, I desire to remind you of this, "The only safe place to build your life is on God's Word."   That goes along with our Sunday School Lesson for tomorrow.   As a matter of fact, it is the point of the lesson.   We live in a world that believes in no "absolute" standards of right and wrong, but, God IS the standard!   The way we live our lives, is based totally on our belief system. If God is first place in your life, it will show, if He isn't, that will show also.   I challenge you to read God's Word for five minutes a day.   I challenge you to start with the book of John.    John talks about the deity of Jesus Christ.   I love the book of John for that reason.   I challenge you to read it deliberately and slowly, letting what you read sink in to your soul.    That's the best way to build your life on God's Word and it's also a great place to be, in God's Word.    Ok, y'all, who's up for a challenge?   Call it the "Love Challenge".   Let's take this challenge, y'all!    You are loved!    Jesus Christ is our One, True Love! 

Hugs Y'all, and much love, Patty

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