March projects

Good evening y'all.   Has everyone adjusted to the time change?   Is everyone ready for spring?    We just have to roll with it, don't we.    Glancing over at the outside temp, it doesn't feel much like spring, but I do feel rest assured that it will start feeling more like it every day.   It won't be long till all the beauty of the awakening spring will be all around us and we will, once again, put winter in the back of our minds for the next few months.   I can't wait till the wild flowers start blooming.   Even some of the little flowering weeds are just beautiful and I can't wait.

There is a lot of sickness going around and I do pray for all these folks to feel much better soon.    Friends having surgery, some have already had surgery and recouping.   Friends having lost loved ones and dealing with the pain of that, I pray for them.   Many prayers on behalf of these folks.

I have been working on a few projects this month and I have a few pics to share with y'all.   I hope you enjoy what I have been up to.   I have gotten behind on so many little projects to be posted, but it's all good.    It's good to keep busy, even if I don't show y'all when I want to, I will get around to sharing sooner or later. 

The above two pics is of my "Bits and Bobs" card and envelope.   The bits and bobs are pieces laying around on my craft area, left over from other projects.  I had cut cards with a honeycomb background and the little hex pieces are from that.   I used a butterfly stamp and then I found the glittery, blingy, purple (all of my favorites, yay) butterfly that sat perfectly over the stamped butterfly and then the flourish at the bottom of the stamped butterfly.  I used a tiny butterfly stamp and stamped a few on the little hex pieces and then colored them a bit.   I carried the tiny stamped butterfly image on to the envelope to tie them together.   Then I used some taupe colored half pearls in the corners of the card.    I really enjoyed making this card.

My atc (Artist Trading Card) is simple, to say the least, but they made me smile.   I loved all the little St. Patrick's Day images I had.   I put a layer of cardstock on each side of a piece of cereal box, then cut them out with my sizzix atc die.   I used a square check background on the diagonal and stamped it in green.   I inked the edges of the atc with a brown ink pad after I used a brown marker on the edges of the atc to color the white edges.  I inked the little image lightly with a brown ink pad to make it look a little aged.  I then pulled out some liquid bling (hahaha) and put a little glitter on this little girl talking to her best friend.   (She is actually me and one of my friends, hahaha)   She makes me happy, as they all did.   I made 6 of these.

This was my tag.   It is called "black magic".   I'm not really fond of the name, but I love the technique!   As usual, I always do my "own" thing with these techniques.   It is supposed to be white stamped on black.   I stamped my image in white on a navy blue tag.   I then inked the sides of the tag with a silver metallic ink.  After you stamp the white image on your dark cardstock, once the white has dried, you take color pencils and color the image.  I then used my white souffle pen to enhance the white stamped image and made a series of dots white dots all over the image, randomly.   I then used several pieces of threads and ribbons and looped them thru the hole in the tag.   I love all the threads and ribbons.   I really loved this technique.  I will be doing more samples of this.

This is my ornament with a church and a girl dancing with an Easter Bunny on the other side.   I am so loving these ornaments.   At the end of the year, my friend and I will have a year of collectible ornaments.   I am making them with glitter cardstock on both sides with a piece of cereal box in between so they are beefy feeling.   Then I use various sizzix dies to cut them out and punch a hole in the top for a seam-binding hanger with the year printed on a tag and stuck to the seam binding.

That's it for this go-around.   I'll be back soon with some more good stuff, so stay tuned, ok.   I hope you enjoyed what you seen here and I hope and pray that you make plans to join me back here again.   I'll be looking for ya'!

As I leave you tonight, I ask y'all, "To "whom" do you show gratitude, and for "what" do you show gratitude?    Kind of a funny question, huh?    Well, we show gratitude to friends when we know they care about us.   We show gratitude to someone who has done something for us when we needed help.   We show gratitude when we know that people have been praying for us.   We show gratitude to a lot of different people for many different reasons.

Psalm 138:1 says: "I will give You thanks with all my heart; I will sing Your praise before the heavenly beings."

Notice that David praised God with all his heart.   Gratitude for God's blessings upon David's life consumed him and he couldn't contain it!    He praised God continuously, regardless of his situation.   God wants us to love Him, obey Him, serve Him and worship Him with all our heart.    Who else do we credit with all the blessings in our lives?    I know for myself, that unless God allows it, my heart won't beat!    I know for myself, that unless God allows it, my lungs will not fill with air and release on a regular basis!    I know for myself, that unless God wills it, my eyes won't blink!    Absolutely everything my body does to sustain life is done because God allows it.   For that, Father God, I will praise You with all my heart, all the days of my life.   I praise You, Father God for providing a way to have a right relationship with you thru Jesus Christ!   I will sing praises to You!

Good night y'all, may you have pleasant dreams and a rest filled night!   God love's 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

How to get a straighter cut with your Paper Trimmer,

Good evening y'all!    As my day comes close to an end, I wanted to pop in here with a mini, and very frugal tutorial.    But, before I get to that, I want to share with y'all that I can get out of my garage now.    Yay!!    My sweet husband got all the pine tree limbs drug out to the road for the city to pick up.    He is one smart dude, if I do say so myself.    It would have taken us a whole morning dragging the pine branches out of the driveway, but.....he took his log chain and wrapped it around a bundle of limbs and let his pickup truck do the hard work.    Fifteen minutes and two trips to the road, with the limbs in tow, being pulled by the truck, and it was done.    In a snap, just like that, he knocked it out of the park!    Yay!!!!

The city workers sure have been busy this week picking up all the limbs from trees broken earlier this week with the ice storm.    So "three cheers" for all the extra work that our local city employees have been up to this winter, due to ice damage.    I do pray that Spring is in sight.    We do "Spring" our clocks forward before we go to bed Saturday night, so don't forget that, or you will be late for church.  

Anyway, back to the "Paper Trimmer".     I was working on some projects this week and I have been getting more than a little frustrated with my paper trimmer.  I have a really "honkin" big one, but I hate to drag that out for just for a small project.    I have a lighter Cricut paper trimmer that will handle 12x12 inch paper easily  and then I have a smaller one for 8 inch paper or smaller.    The one I was working with first was the Cricut one.  You will probably recognize it when you see it, it is a great trimmer and they are a popular brand.  

It has a clear plastic track that comes down over the paper once you get the paper in place as to where you want to cut it.     You let the track down and in the middle of the track is where the little blade sits and you slide it up or down to cut your paper.    It is very simple and efficient.    But....because the track is plastic, and kinda thin, and because I don't have as good a grip in my fingers as I used to, if I am not careful I won't get a perfect cut.   It can be off as much as 1/16th of an inch, top vs bottom.    Now, don't get me wrong, I love my Cricut Trimmer, really, I do, otherwise I would have gotten rid of it and moved on to something else.     So, this is what I do now:

So, above you see my trimmer, a sheet of paper, and a purple, three sided, steel ruler.    Gotta love PURPLE!!!!    hahaha

In the above I have my paper positioned to be cut.

Above, I placed the straight edge of the ruler right next to the left hand side of the blade track, being careful not to disturb my paper placement.

Above, I made half a cut and then stopped to take a pic.   I needed two more hands for this yesterday, so I had to stop, take pic and finish my cut.   But while cutting, just hold the ruler in place, steadily and make your cut.   It gives you something to brace up against while making your cut and it doesn't bow out, one way or the other.

Above, I think this is the first cut I have ever made that I didn't have to try to trim it up because I applied to much pressure, one way or the other, making my cut.    (I am really hoping this is making sense.)

This ruler I used has a wavy edge, a scalloped edge and the the straight edge on top.    I just lay it over on the side and pushed the straight edge up to the track.

I am really happy that I had this "light bulb" moment yesterday.     I had already started looking for one that would help me get better results.    Like I said earlier, it isn't as much an issue with the trimmer as it is with my hands, but at any rate, I am so happy now that I don't have to look for a replacement, I just get to enjoy what I already have.     I just don't know why I haven't thought of this earlier because the ruler is always on my desk, after all it's PURPLE!!! hahaha
Oh, and by the way, any ruler will work for this, it doesn't have to be a heavy, metal, three sided, (purple) ruler.    What ever you have on your desk will work.

Anyway, this is very elementary, I know, but I really feel like I am not the only one that may have issues with their hands, so others may benefit from this.    I hope so any way.

As I leave y'all this evening, I ask y'all this question.    Do you have worries, problems, or burdens that you feel is more than you can deal with?    If you do, give them all God, He can deal with them, He can carry them.

1 Peter 5:7 Casting all your care upon Him; for He cares for you.

Some of our problems are caused by situations that we are not in control of.    We have seen this winter that we are not in control of the weather.    Some of the problems we have are caused by us, ourselves, our own sins.    What ever the situation, God wants us to give all of those situations to Him.     Basically, giving every thing of every day to Him, not just a little here and a little there, but everything, "all your cares, for He cares for you".     I have found out personally and in a very real way that God does care about me.    Because I know He cares about me, I know He cares about you also.    What ever the situation, what ever the burden, give it to God, because He cares about you.    So much so that He provided us the way to be in a right relationship with Him, thru Jesus Christ!   

Good night y'all.    God loves you, so do I!    I pray for you to have a great night of peaceful rest and a wonderful weekend.

God bless y'all, hugs and much love, 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

March brings bad weather

Good evening y'all.    I hope that each and every one of y'all are warm and cozy this cold March evening.    I'm sure Spring is on it's way, at least when I look at the calendar.    hahaha    You sure can't tell it by the weather itself.    Yesterday was one of those days that just leaves you with a headache.    It rained all day, and then in the late evening darkness the rain turned to ice.    It wasn't long till there was an inch and half or two inches of ice and then a couple of inches of snow on top of that.

I sat up late waiting for my husband to get in from work.    Just praying for his safety on the way home.    It was a whole lot later than usual when he got home, but that was because he worked over a few minutes, of course I did not know that, so I was really worried.    All the while, it was icing harder and harder.    It sounded like hail at one point, hitting the windows.    While I was waiting, I heard a really loud noise that sounded like someone trying to break through the side of the house.    I finally realized what it was.    Our neighbors have a row of lovely white pine trees between our house and theirs and the trees was overloaded with ice and there was a bunch of ice laden limbs that fell onto the ground in front of the garage.    I am really thankful that they didn't fall on the house or the garage.    I didn't get to see the damage till this morning.    I finally figured out that the limbs that shed off the trees were damaged back in November or December of last year when we had our first ice storm of the season.    There was a few branches that fell off then, but there was a lot more fell off last night.

I got out this morning with my camera and took a few pics.   I absolutely love pics of ice and snow, so I just tried to make the best of a bad situation.   hahaha   Have camera, will shoot!!!

 Our little lilac bush, ice covered.  I know it will smell lovely later on.

 This is where the branches fell off the tree.

 I love these.

 This is the pile of limbs that are in front of our garage.

 I love the baby pine cones covered with ice and snow.

 I love this fat little fellow.   He was posing for me.

 I said, "Cheese", and he looked at me. hahaha

 There was two trees that lost a bunch of branches, all in a big pile.

This is one of the trees that lost branches.

Well, this is what I got to look at this morning.    I wish I could have put all my pics up, but what I did put up was almost too many.   I do hope you enjoy looking at the beautiful snow and the bird that posed for me and the lovely ice pics.   I am still saddened by the damage to the trees, but I know it could have been so much worse.    There was no damage to our house, garage and there doesn't even appear to be any damage to our neighbors fence, just a little clean up, when it warms up a bit and the ice melts.

I guess this is just nature.   Most of the time there is even beauty in the midst of the storm.    The birds were beautiful.    The pine cones enclosed in ice, is beautiful.    The little droplets of ice at the ends of the pine branch tips is beautiful.    I pray for the people that are without electricity and for the people who's houses were damaged and for the people injured in vehicle accidents.

As I leave you this evening, I leave you with this scripture verse:

Psalm 51:7  Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

When there is a layer of snow covering the dry, hibernating grass, and all the not so pretty stuff that we look at between fall and spring, we forget about what the snow is covering.    The snow and ice reminds me of the fact that God has cleansed me of my sins, through Jesus Christ.    He loved you and me enough and wanted to have a relationship with us, so, He provided us with the one and only way to have a relationship with Him, through Jesus Christ.  I pray that you, too, have been washed whiter than snow and that your sins have been forgiven.   

God bless you this evening with, love in you heart, joy in your soul and peace that passes all understanding.  Good night, hugs, and much love, Patty