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

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

Pics of some Swaps posted

Good afternoon Y'all!   I trust that you are enjoying this beautiful Lord's Day today!   How truly awesome it is to Praise God for His tender love and mercy, Y'all!   We had a great worship service at church this morning and I look forward to a wonderful time of praise, worship and Bible study this evening. 

I wanted to pop in and share a few pics of some swaps I was in for January.   I had a great time with these swaps.   It was just a few short months ago that I joined my first swap of all time.   Can I just say, "Y'all, I'm addicted", but I must also say, it's a great addiction.   It is part of my quiet time, alone time with the Lord.   So, I love it.   I also get to pray for whom ever receives my swap.   That makes my crafting so meaningful.   I know that any skill or talent I may have came from the Lord of my life, and I praise Him for that.

So, without any further ado, here are some of my pics:

The picture above is my tag that is all about Love .   I cut the tag on my Silhouette and then the hearts are a Sizzix sizzlit, (I believe) and it is a cut and emboss hinged die.  It does it all in one pass.  Pretty neat.   The little xo on top and the small heart in the middle and the ticket stub on the bottom were pieces I had bought.  They were in 13 inch strips for borders, so I snipped what I needed and used some more on another swap.  I really had fun with this.

The above pic is the image I put on the back of my tag.  I just wanted to gussie it up a little bit, too.   I had printed out several vintage images and used one.   I inked the edges and also darkened the whole image just a tad to give it a more vintage look.

The above pic is of my ATC swap.   You will see some more of one of the borders I used.  I snipped off two of the xo's and used on these.   I had posted a mini tutorial back earlier in the month showing how to put small pieces in an embossing folder and keeping them from moving with a very tiny piece  of scor tape.  Well, the ATC's is what I used those on.  They are in the very center of the card.   I just wanted an element with embossing on it.   I cut the letters out with my Silhouette.   They cut like butta'.   I had gotten some Viva Decor Inka Gold Metallic Rub for Christmas in 5 diff colors.   The edges of the ATC's have four of those colors on them.   Gotta love me some Viva Decor!   Love that stuff, Y'all!

The last swap was a shaped Valentine card.   I had gotten this card from the Silhouette store and thought it was perfect for what I needed.   My Silhouette, again done a beautiful job.   The white pieces you see were cut with my Cuttlebug and various dies.   I believe that all of those pieces was cut with diff Spellbinder or Sizzix thin dies.   You see some really small hearts scattered around on the interior of this card.   They came from the exterior of the card which you will see in the next pic or two.   They were the perfect size to just pop on here and there.

See, you can see where all those little hearts were cut from.   It was such a shame to think about tossing them, so, I glued them on and them glittered them up.   Oh yeah, you knew I would get around to bling!   Love me some bling!   I also used my perfect pearls and went around the scalloped edge with gold.   More bling, y'all!   hehehe

Since my card wasn't a regular sized card, I needed to make an envelope for it.  So the above pic shows my envelope.   Then, I took out one of my embossing folders and my Grand Calibur because it has a larger area and got the folder just so on the flap and embossed with my Sizzix heart folder.   I enjoyed how that turned out.

Ok, so for this last pic, I decided my card needed a closure of some kind to hold it shut.   I had mentioned about some borders I had purchased and used some of this one.   I took what was left and folded it in half and glued it together and a made a band to go around it to keep it closed.   All of my swaps had purple in them.   Y'all, I love purple, what can I say?   So, I used purple and pink colors.   I think purple and pink says "Love" as much as red does.  

Well, that is the pics of my swaps and the story behind them, and I'm stickin' to it.   gggg   I hope and pray that my swap recipients enjoy them just half as much as I enjoyed making them.   Oh, and stay tuned, because I have some more pics of projects and you DO NOT want to miss them! (hehehe)

As I leave you this evening, I leave you with a message from Jesus, "I Love You, my child!"    No other person will ever love you as much as Jesus loves you!    Jesus is the best Valentine anyone could ever give or receive.   So, as we are thinking towards Valentines Day in February, that is my Valentine to you.

John 3:16-For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

I pray that you will accept this Valentine in the spirit in which it is offered, LOVE!   Jesus loves y'all and so do I!   God bless y'all every day in every way!

Good evening and Hugs y'all,  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

Woopppeeee...I can now reveal...

...what I could not reveal on Friday, the 11th. of October.   It seems like a whole life time ago that I posted about three swaps I am in this month.  I have certainly not been up to"snuff", as my late grandmother would say, when she wasn't feeling really good.  gggg   But, I praise the Lord for people in my life that are willing, at the drop of a hat, to lift me in prayer to the Lord.  I love you, ladies, and need for you to know that!!

So, I have been working on these projects like a busy little "worn out" bee! hahaha  I am quite pleased with the way they turned out.  I do give all the credit and praise to the Lord for blessing my efforts.

So, here they are:  The first two pics are of the mini hanging quilt, but I set mine on an easel, instead of making it a hanging.  If Ms. S. wants to hang it, she will be able to do so.  If you look closely, you can see that it is actually four layers of card stock.  Then I done the marker "stitching", and it kinda does look like hand stitching.  Then I lightly inked most if not all of the cut edges.  Then of course, what is a project without bling!!

The next pic is of an ATC swap.  We were to make artist trading cards depicting something we are thankful for.  I am thankful for the Fall season.  So, that is what my card is depicting.  Pumpkin, leaves and an acorn, all three yell Fall to me.  I took a piece of cereal box and and covered both sides with decorative paper and cut out the cards.  I inked the edges and then done some stamping on them. I marker stitched around the card.  Then I colored and inked the pumpkin, leaves and acorn.  When they were dry, I commenced to blinging them up with faux stickles (glitter glue).  The back is also decorated and stamped and written on about the info for the particular swap.

The next photos are of the Altered Item Swap.  Guess what I altered, go ahead, wrong!!!!  hahahaha  These are tags to go in what I actually altered.

 This is a Mini Tag Book, made from toilet paper rolls.  I flattened them with my cuttlebug, then covered them with Patterned paper.  Inked all edges, then used my crop-a-dile to put in some eyelets to use seam binding as the book binding.  Lots of stamped images, stickers and bling later, and this is what it looks like.

Anyway, this is what my swaps turned out looking like.  I do hope and pray that the recipients of all of the items I made are happy with what I done for them.  I did pray for each one of them as I was making their swap items.

I do hope that y'all enjoyed what you have seen here today.  If you did, tell someone.  Send them here to my little fun place for a little inspiration.

As I leave you this afternoon, I pray that your day has been filled with peace, love and joy.  I pray that you will share that peace, love and joy with all the people in your life.  Tell someone you love them, not because you have to tell them, but because you really do love them, and want them to know it.  My hearts desire is that each of you that visit this little place will leave knowing that you are precious in the eyes of God, after all, you are created by Him, and created in His image!!!  Have you ever made something that you were really proud of?  Do you know that feeling of accomplishment?   Well, that's how God feels, multiplied by millions!  God Loves You!!!

Be Blessed Y'all, and Hugs, Patty

Really excited.....

I can't post pics yet of what I'm excited about, but I will share a little with you, without giving away what they look like.  I recently joined in some swaps on one of the crafting yahoo groups I belong to.  I found out a little more about what needs to be done this morning.  So, I have till the end of the month to get the three swaps ready and mailed out.

One of the swaps is a "quilt" wall hanging swap.  It can be made of any media.  So, I made a quilt from card stock.  I am so stinkin' excited about this one.  I had a ball making it, especially after one of the other swappers mentioned she was going to make one from paper and cardstock since she does not sew.

Another swap is "anything altered".  I can't say much about this one, because I don't want to let the cat out of the bag as to what I altered.  But, I do love the idea of taking something that may have ended up in the trash can and re-purposing it to a thing of beauty, or to something useful.

My third and final swap for this month is Artist Trading Cards featuring something we are grateful for.  I have never made these before, but I am quite excited about this.  They are, the best I can figure, similar to the sports type trading cards.  Art work is on the front and back, but the back will also have some info on it about the the artist and what have you.

I can't wait to post pics, but I will as soon as I possibly can.  I am just jumping up and down.

As I leave you today, I leave you with fall blessings.  I pray, that sometime soon, we will take inventory of all that we have to be thankful for.  If we look  purposefully, at everything, we will find that we have so much to be thankful for.  I am thankful for this time of year because it is the changing of the seasons.  Summer is over, fall is the transition period that gets us ready for the winter season.  I always look forward to fall because of all the pumpkins and winter squash.  And sweet potatoes!!  Sweet potato pie, y'all!!!  What is better than a sweet potato pie?  "Well, git outta here, nothing is!!!!"

Thank God for everything sweet and special in your life.  I guarantee you,all of it came from Him.  As we are taking account of everything we are thankful for, lets keep God, the Father at the very top of that list.  God bless you all today in a very special way!

hugs,  Patty