October, ouch!!!

October has just slipped up on me this year, y'all!!!!     That is why I said "Ouch", it just seems to hurt a bit, that this year is 3/4 gone already and it just seems like it was yesterday that I hung up my 2014 calendar.     Time certainly has a way of skipping on by, whether we like it or not.    The only thing I know to do is just skip right on along with it and enjoy the scenery and the changing of seasons.     Just turn the page in our coloring books and crack open that new set of crayons and color and craft away.     How does that sound?      It sounds like a pretty good game plan to me.     Whether we do it or not, time will keep on skipping by, and at least we'll have a coloring book full of gor-juss scenery.

Was it cold in your neck of the woods over the weekend?     It sure was in mine, y'all!!!     Saturday night and Sunday morning it was down to 30*, y'all!!!      I know it was at least that, because I seen it on two different thermometers and that was at 6:15am on Sunday morning.    What I wonder, did it get colder than that, and I just missed seeing it?     I don't know.     The real kicker, y'all, "our heat is NOT working".     Go figure!!!      I got ready and went on to church.     Hubby had to work this weekend, so when he got up, after I left for church, he started the gas fire place and it needed to be vacuumed out before hand, so all the collected dust had to burn out, and it really did stink, y'all!!!!     He turned that off and resorted to the itty bitty heater that we have and he finally got warmed up.     Now, today, we have to call the repair folks and see what the damage to our check book will be. 

It has been a week today since I updated my blog.    Wow, what a difference a week can make.     It has been a sad week for my church family.     One of our Saints went home to be with the Lord on Wednesday morning.     She's walkin' the Streets of Gold today and enjoying the presence of her Savior and Father God!     It truly was a shock for those of us who are still here and maybe questioning why.      But, in reality, God has His plans and we just have to be ready at all times to be in the will of God's plan.     I certainly know that this lady was.     She will be sadly missed because she was loved by all who knew her.     What a grand legacy!      In the midst of the sadness at church yesterday, there was also a boat load of joy and excitement.     Our church membership grew by two yesterday!      So, in the midst of such pain and sadness, God showed up with so much joy and excitement.      God is good all the time!!!!!

While everything was taking place this past week, I crafted a bit, just to keep my mind occupied and in a good place.     What I want to share with y'all today though, is a card I made a week or so ago.     One of my friends on a Google+ community called Kraafters Kommunity had made a card a couple of weeks ago and I really loved it.     It is a fabulous fall card with lots of colors, lots of texture and lots of layers.     What more could anyone want?      (You can find Kraafters Kommunity by going here: http://kraaftshaak.com )  I wanted to make one similar to hers.     And I did.     I used her card, +Angela Conklin, as a starting place for mine, you can find it here:  http://heartedlyhandcrafted.blogspot.com/2014/09/autumn-leaf-greeting-card.html     Now, mine isn't made exactly like hers.    I just used hers as a starting place and then done my own thing.

I used a 12x12 sheet of double sided card stock and cut it in half.   The inside portion of the card had pumpkins on it making it very appropriate for my sentiment.    I scored it on the 3" and 9" marks, that makes a double door closure for the card.    I had a piece of cardstock that looks and feels like the texture of a basketball.     No joke, it really does.     I love the looks of it and had been wanting to use it for a long time, just didn't want to waste it.     So, I used it, and because I didn't want to waste any of it, that's why mine is folded instead of the corners cut off.    I used that card stock as a layer on the front, so what I cut off the bottom layer, fit perfectly on the flap that was folded back.    No waste!    Yay!!     Instead of cutting the corners off, I folded them down and kept them.  I put two eyelets on each side of the folded corners and ran a couple pieces of burlap string thru them and knotted them.

This is what the inside looks like.    I just love all those pumpkins with the oak tree and sentiment.     I took my little Ranger ink daubers and colored the stamped image with three or four colors just daubed on.    The next layer back is just a piece of white Georgia Pacific cut to size and then inked with orange on all the edges about a 1/2" all the way around.     Saves colored cardstock and there's no use in inking any more than necessary.     I then used my Gun Metal embossing folder and Cuttlebug and embossed that layer.    I put down strips of orange sheer poly ribbon, one going east to west with a bit of wrap around and another one going north to south with a bit of wrap around, placing them off center on purpose.     The last layer is a layer of burlap.      Or as I grew up calling it, "grass sack".      Hahaha!!!!      I know some of y'all have heard that term before.      I'm telling y'all, it may be my favorite thing to work into a card now.      I love it, thanks to you, +Angela Conklin.

I then got that layer affixed to the first two layers and wrapped the ribbon around to the back side and used my scrappy tape to put that down on the card base.

I used a couple of the small movers and shapers by Sizzix and cut a couple of leaves and acorns and attached them to the front of the finished card.   I wish I had taken a picture of the envelope I had already made and didn't use.    It was about a 1/4" thick, just perfect for this card.     I have to tell y'all, that cardstock I used on the front of it really helped make this card for me.     I wish I had ton more of it, but I don't, so I will have to be very judicious about how I use it.   ggg

As I leave you today, I want to leave you with the scripture that God has used to deal with "me" as of the last month or so.    James 3:5 "Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts.  Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark."  

James is speaking about that little ole' thing, the tongue, and how hard it is to tame it.    He had compared it to a bit in a horses mouth; such a tiny tool used to control such a large animal as a horse.     Also, he gave the image of a tiny rudder on a large ship and steering that ship in the storms at sea with such a tiny piece of equipment.     Then he starts talking about our tongues.     How dare he do that!      Shame on him!      Well, this is where the rubber meets the road for me, y'all!!!     How many times have I spoken with that big ole' little tongue of mine when I should have remained silent?     James then proceeds to tell us about whole forests being burned down by one little spark!!!    We know how truthful that is.     Every year certain parts of the U.S. deals with massive forest fires, started by one little spark.

Have you ever been caught up in the forest fire of speaking when you should have remained silent?     I have!!!     It's not pleasant at all.    The best you can do is apologize after the fact, ask for forgiveness, and seek restoration with Father God.    I have been in that situation more times than I care to admit.    I hope and pray that I can learn from my own mistakes.     As much power as there is in a single spark, there's that much power or more in the tongue.     There is either life affirming words coming from our mouths or there is destructive words coming from our mouths.    That's it folks, just two choices.      We either teach, bless, build up, encourage, praise, speak truth in love, even if it is painful; or we curse, tear down, discourage, bad mouth, speak hurtful harsh words.     We have the power to speak life or death over someone.     Oh, our words will not actually cause someone to die, but they can kill a dream, or discourage someone to the point of never trying, or cause someone to believe the lies of the enemy that he is always spewing out at us.      Or, we can speak life and excitement over someones dreams, we can cause them to dream even bigger dreams.    We can encourage someone to take steps they may have never taken.     We can help someone to see that the lies of the enemy are just that, lies!  

I just hope and pray that God will help me in the future to watch my tongue a little more closely and to speak only when it is purposeful and will be for the edification, or the building up of the one I'm speaking to.    That is a prayer that God is more than ready to help me with and He will help you too.     I hope that this doesn't land at anyone's doorstep, other than mine, but if it does, just know that there is restoration available by apologizing sincerely, asking for forgiveness, and then seeking restoration with Father God.    Those things are not easy to do, been there done that, and folks, it just ain't easy!!!     But.....it is necessary.     We have to be willing to do whatever is necessary to tame our little ole' big tongues!

I pray that y'all have a wonderful rest of the evening.    I hope you enjoyed what you seen here today; if you did share it with someone.     Someone you know needs to know that they, too, may need to work on controlling their tongue.    God will help them, if they so desire.

Ladybug, I hope you had a great weekend and look forward to seeing you sometime soon.    Sweetpea loves you.

Come back again real soon, y'all.   God loves y'all, so do I!!!   hugs, Patty

Grungy Card # 3

Well, guess what y'all?    It's August!!!   Oh my!    Where has summer gone?    Technically, it's still summer, but with school starting back today, it seems like it has been a short summer.    I can remember back in the day, when school let out the middle to the end of May and didn't start back up until after Labor Day!    Sure makes me feel old, recalling the "olden days".   hahahaha

I wanted to share my third grungy card.    Back in July when I posted about the first one, I said I had three, so this is the last one.    I am really enjoying learning my Spectrum Noir markers.    I don't know that I'll ever get as good as I hope to get with them, but I have had a good time working with them.

I hope y'all like this card.    I had a good time making it.    It is so amazing at how little it really takes to make a difference.    I hope you can see what I'm talking about in a minute, when you start looking at the pics.

I really had fun with this one.    I love the pink and green combo.   The embossing folder is quickly becoming a fav.    I inked the edge of the green with pink ink.   Then also the edge of the stamped image.    It is stipple cut, to mimic a ragged edge and then I even used my sandpaper on the edge of it too.    I had a very small bit of ivy vine that I had cut and I used a sprig in the upper and lower right hand corners.    I took two short pieces of grosgrain ribbon and just knotted it together and trimmed the ends and fluffed the ends out and I really like that look.    On the left hand corners, I put flat back pink pearls.  

On this one you can see where I used my trusty Sakura gelly roll pen in clear star just for a bit of sheen.    You really don't see it front on, but if you look at an angle, you see it really well.    I enjoy the look.    It's blingy without obvious bling.

I put it on the flower and the foliage of the flower.   

Ok, so this is where I was talking about a very small amount of something making a huge difference.    Do you see what I'm talking about?    I took my liquid pearls and made very tiny dots on some of the squares of the embossed area.   I have to tell you, in hand, it made a tremendous difference.   It was just the icing on the cake, er, card.    ggg

Hope you enjoyed that.   Now, off to something just a little different.    Make that a lot different!!!!

Ok y'all, I don't like snakes.   I want to say that again, "I don't like snakes!!"   Not in the least little bit, no way, no how, not gonna happen in this lifetime.   Nada, zilch, nope, not gonna happen!!!!    So, the week I was preparing to go up to Ky, I was out and about, getting things ready for my absence at home, for a bit.   I was getting ready to make a quick run to the grocery store and out the back door I went and bounded down the steps off the deck and was getting ready to go to the garage and something at the back of the garage caught my eye, just as I breezed by.   I stopped, stepped back a couple of steps and looked over my right shoulder, and I screamed and jumped and ran back up the steps, my hubby thought a "booger" had scared me.   I said "not hardly, I scare "boogers", they don't have a chance."    But what did scare me is what is in the picture below.

After I got over my initial shock, I got my cellphone outta my purse and took a couple of pics of it.   You see the numbers on it.   Ok, while in Ky, I was showing my brothers what I had a pic of.   One of them asked me how long it was.    I measured out with both hands to what the length of about 3 1/2 or 4 feet.   I thought it was from #1 and #2.    He said, look at that thing again, it's longer than that.   Well, I looked at it again and zoomed in on it some and I'm tellin' ya', I almost passed out!!!!!   It was a foot longer than I had originally thought.   In reality, it is between 5 and 6 feet long!    Now, here's what gets me, where there's one, there's always another one!    Now, every time I leave the house, I'm looking for a snake!!!!   Did I happen to mention, "I don't like snakes!!"    One thing Jim Stafford and I have in common is this, "I don't like spiders and snakes!"    (Some of you will know who Jim Stafford is, others will have to google him.   ggg)

This got me to thinking when I was a kid, maybe seven or so.    Our kitchen was at the back of the house, behind the living room and it was bumped out on the end so there was an outside door that was on the front of the house, because it faced the front.    It was a small covered porch and three or four poured concrete steps.   Once on the porch, you could look directly up, and there was the attic entrance that was covered with maybe a piece of plywood that you would just move it to one side if you needed to go to the attic and then move it back over the entrance.    It wasn't used for any kind of storage, so it wasn't used much.    On the wall just under the roof of the porch was an outside light.   Just a single bulb with a kind of clearish, whiteish globe.    I was getting ready to come in the kitchen and looked up just as I stepped up on the porch and there was a huge black snake hanging around that light fixture, just like you would wrap a scarf around your neck to hang evenly, that's how that snake was hanging there!!   I screamed and ran back off the porch and my family came running, anyone that was home came running to see what the commotion was.  All I could do was point and say "there".    It was at least five or six feet long.    It scared the stink plum out of me.    I never went in that back door again without looking closely to see if there was a snake.    I asked how it got up there.   Someone suggested that maybe it was coming from the attic and I said, "you mean we live in that house with snakes in the attic!!!"    My brother said, "If that's where it came from, it came from the attic, and not the house, so it wasn't in the house."    My argument, "Technically, it was in the house, and I was in the house."     Did I happen to mention, I just flat out don't like snakes!!!

Which brings to mind, another reason I don't like snakes.    My grandparents lived in a big, old house out close to the church they went to.    Another house came available on the same road, but it was out closer to the main highway and they decided they wanted to move to that house.    If I remember correctly, the same land owner owned it that owned the one they was already living in.   So, he was gonna let them move in the one closer to the road.    It needed fixing up some, so my mom and dad was helping with cleaning and renovation of the house before they moved.     The two houses was a pretty good ways apart from each other.   Probably a mile or so.    There was a dirt tractor path through the farm area from one house to the other.    When mom and dad was at the house working  and the older boys helping, the younger ones of us could go over to Ma and Pa's and visit with them for a spell.   

The dirt on the path was as fine as powder.   Any barefoot tracks really shown.   If you knew the feet, you could easily pick out who they belonged to, just by seeing the prints in the dirt.    My two youngest brothers and I was walking along going over to see Ma and they were ahead of me by a little bit.   I was just moseying along and for some reason, I happened to look back over my shoulder and here came a "black racer" snake chasing me!!!    He had his head off the ground at least a foot and he was coming after me and I never seen anything like that before.    I screamed, and started running and ran and ran and ran and I didn't stop running till I got to Ma's house and I never made that walk through the dirt path again.  

I was talking about that with some of my brothers and mom and one of my brothers said that if I would have turned around and ran back at it, that I would have scared it as bad or more than it scared me.    I said, "Yeah, right! I still hate snakes!"   Now, I don't know if I could have scared the snake as bad as it scared me or not, but I would not have EVEN tried it back then for sure!    Not so sure I would try it now.    But, then again, I might have to do a stare down with one now, because now I could not "haul self" (run like the dickens)  like I did back then, when I was young.    Oh, to be young again, and be able to run from a snake!!!!    Even through all the years that have passed since these two incidents with snakes, "I STILL HATE SNAKES!!!"    Yup, that's right, still a sissy when it comes to all things slithery!    hahaha   Bet some of y'all are too!    hahaha

As I leave you this afternoon, I leave you with this scripture;  Psalm46:1 "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in our trouble."

Today, one of the major fixations is the "super-heroes" in the movies.    Every one loves a good movie with a good hero in the end to save the day or to ride off in the sunset, or to live happily ever after.   We just love it when the "good guy" wins.

Have you ever thought that we have our own hero.   We don't look at God in that light, because it is trivializing to what God has done for us, is doing for us and will do for us.    I never want to trivialize God in that manner.    But, if you just have to have a hero, I challenge you to look at what God does for us.

Since God is the creator of all that is, He is in charge over all.    Do you have fears and worries?    Of course you do, we all do.    We don't mean to, but we do, none the less.    We struggle with that every day, and we confess those sins to God and ask Him to help us.     God is always there, at all times!     Never is He not there.    God is the source of our security and peace.    What do you think of when you think of the word "refuge"?   God being our refuge?    I think about that place of safety, that secret place, that hidden place where only God is, and I am there with Him.    Never to be disturbed by the things that disturb us in this life.    I think about all the problems and situations of life that arise, but God is going ahead of me working it out.    Yes, there is things of this life that will touch each and every one of us and we will have to walk those things out.    But, we don't have to walk it out alone.    Anything in this life that can hurt us or cause us distress is temporary.   This life is temporary.    Our ultimate goal in this life should be "eternal glory"!    Absolutely nothing will happen to any one of us that God doesn't know about.    God knows His own.    If you are not in a right relationship with God, why not get that worked out, now, so that you too, can know the comfort of God as your refuge and strength, and your present help in trouble?    Jesus Christ said that no one comes to Father, except thru Me.   The way to God, the Father is thru Jesus Christ, the Son.   I hope that you will take the opportunity to repent and ask Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sins and to be Lord of you life and to help you live your life with eternal glory at the fore front of your mind.    When we focus on eternal things, then the temporary problems doesn't seem so big.    I hope and pray that you will let God be your safe place to fall.

Have a wonderful rest of the day, y'all!    I hope you enjoyed your visit here this evening, and if you did, tell someone about your visit.   I hope you will come back soon.

Ladybug, I hope all is well in the village this evening.  Hope to see you soon.   Love you lots, Sweetpea!

Come back soon y'all.   Remember, God loves y'all and so do I.   hugs, Patty

Click Your Heels

That's a catchy title, isn't it?     Just you wait and see what it's all about.   ggg    I hope and pray y'all are having  a great day today.     It's sunny, humid, and hot in my neck of the woods.    The sun is good.    The humid and hot, I could do with a lot less of it.    If I remember correctly, back earlier in the year when we didn't think warm weather would ever get here, I think I remember making a promise that I wouldn't complain about the weather.    So.......I'm pretty sure I just broke that promise, y'all.    I really didn't mean to, but, I just don't do very well in the humidity and heat.    Ugh!!!    One thing for sure, I am so thankful for our air conditioner.  

So, back to the title of my post.    I seen a card that a friend had made, +Tina Van Eick.    I loved her card and she shared where she had gotten the stamp from, and I ran as quickly as I could; without knocking anyone else over; to the web site, Paper Wishes, over in my left hand column, and ordered the stamp.   I love it!!!   My card isn't as beautiful as Tina's was, but I do hope y'all enjoy seeing it.   Thanks Tina!

So, this is my completed boot card.   I love this stamp!!!   This if the first stamp I have that is "steampunk".    But, I thought it was so gorgeous that I had to have it. 

The embossed layer is from an embossing folder I ordered the same time I ordered the boot.   It is called "gun metal".   I can see it quickly becoming a fav.  It is a 6" x 6" embossing folder.    I do think I will enjoy that size.   It does fit in the Cuttlebug nicely.   I get grungy with my ink on the edges of my card stocks.   I love that look.

I used my Spectrum Noir markers on this.   I also used a little generic gold ink pen that came in a card making mag that I picked up at Joann's around Christmas of 2013.   I used that to color the gold sections.

Then I used my perfect pearls on each corner and also on the boot in diff places.

You can see the dark raised spots in this pic, that is perfect pearls.   I love that stuff.

The slight glittery finish that you see over the purple (have I ever told y'all I love purple?) part of the boot is my faux stickles.    I brushed on a very light coat just to give it a little bling.    Hey, I gotta get a little bling in, y'all!    I was soooo happy with the outcome of my "steampunk" boot, I hope y'all are too!

As I leave you this afternoon, I leave you with this scripture:

Isaiah 26:3  "You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You."

Chapter 26 of Isaiah, in some translations has the title as "A song of Praise".   This song of praise is addressed to God in the form of a prayer, not petitioning God for something, but making a statement to God agreeing with God and proclaiming His work.   The people had honor for God and only God.   Their hope was in God.    Just as our hope is in God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Verse 3 talks of peace.    Perfect peace is a gift from God.    Peace does not come from anyone else or anywhere else.    We can search a lifetime for peace, but we will never find it, till we trust in Him.    When we place our confidence in God, through the Blood of Christ, then we can have peace over the things of this world that tries to steal our joy and contentment.

People are striving for world peace.    You can't mandate peace, you can't legislate peace, you can't make peace a law that has to be followed.    Peace only comes thru that "individual, personal" relationship with God, through Jesus Christ.   Keep your mind on God!   If you don't have a relationship with Christ, you don't have peace.    It's just that simple.    Peace is based on our "steadfast" trust in God.    Do you have enough trust in God to say, "what ever happens, I will trust God"?    That trust produces internal peace, personal peace.    That kind of trust in God, on a personal basis; each individual having peace; CAN bring about peace on a larger scale.    That is the only way this unsettling world will ever know peace.    Individually.   

If you know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, thank Him for that and the peace that comes from having a relationship with Him.    If you know people that don't have a relationship with Christ; and we all do; put those people on your prayer list.   We also should pray for peace.    The peace that I pray for people to have is the peace that passes all understanding, and it comes only from God.    May you have peace in your heart today and stay focused of God and all He's doing for you, through the Blood of Christ.

Ladybug, I pray that each new day is better than the one before.   Keep on keeping on.   Sweetpea loves you lots and can't wait to see you, soon.

Have a blessed rest of the day, y'all!    God loves you and so do I!   hugs, Patty

Grungy Card # 1

Good evening y'all!!!    I hope y'all are enjoying this fine day.    The temp has been back up in the mid to high 90's in my neck of the woods today.    That is a huge change from the last few days, when we had temps down in the 50's.    Yikes!!!!    Get out the winter coats, no...put them up, wait a minute, get them out again!     Oh well, it keeps us on our toes, doesn't it?    We did get a little bit of rain too, while the temps were lower.    It really was a blessing for the farmers, whose crops were about to burn up.    Some of the corn crops we had seen were just about ready to start twisting from being so thirsty for water.    So, it kinda looks like we may be back to what is considered more normal temps.    Hot, sweaty, and sticky!    Not my three most favorite words, but as long as our air conditioner works, it's all good!    hahaha

I have been working on some new cards and I wanted to share one with y'all this evening.    How many of you have trouble with remembering you have supplies and all kinds of tools and things to use in your card making and paper crafting?   I am awful about forgetting to use some of the stuff I have.    I get so focused on one thing that I forget about some of the other things that I can be using.    So, for this card and a couple more, I tried to use more of my stuff and I was happy with the outcome.    I hope you are too.    I do have a tendency to get a little on the grungy side of life when making cards, but that is just my style.   Where a lot of people choose to keep their cards stark and pristine white, or what ever the colors are, I choose to use a lot of ink and smear it everywhere.    I just like the looks and enjoy it.   I hope you do too.

This is the final outcome.   I thought I would show it first and then show you the other three pics I took of the card "before" I added the liquid pearls dots to the sides and top and bottom corners.   In this pic, the flower looks blue, but in reality, it is the color of the bow.    But, I started with a white card base and then I added a lt. gray layer that I ran thru my Cuttlebug with a barbed wire embossing folder.   You can't see it very well.    But, I took a darker gray studio brand ink pad and then rubbed it over the embossed area of the layer.    Then I took my top layer and used memento black and stamped my magnolia and colored it with my Spectrum Noir markers.    Then I took a little bit of grosgrain ribbon and tied two lengths together and clipped the ends and used one of my home made glue dots to adhere the ribbon to the front of the card.

Ok, the above pic WAS the finished card until I eyeballed my liquid pearls and added those to the card.    I really think the liquid pearls added a lot to the card.    The flower looks blue in this photo also.

This is what I really love and it does not show up at all in the first two pics.    I took my Sakura Clear Star Dust gelly roll pens and went all around the edges and the highlights of the design.    It just adds such a subtle sheen to the card.   I absolutely love it.    It really makes me happy.    I'm gettin' my bling on!   By the way, this is the real color of the flower.    I don't know why it is blue when in the full front pics, but it is.   ggg

I tried to get a couple of pics at an angle to show the glimmer of the gelly roll pen.   I love it!    Around the edge of the flower layer, I used a shimmering copper ink pad just swiped over the top of the card ever so lightly.   I grunged up the edge of the white card layer, the gray layer, and the top card layer.    So, it is really grunged up, but that's what makes me happy.    I do have a couple more to share in the near future.    I really hope you like this card and enjoyed seeing it.

As I leave you this evening, I leave you with this scripture:   Psalms 147:3  "He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds."

I LOVE this scripture!!!   It shows how God is at work in our lives extending grace and mercy to His people.    Read the whole chapter.    It is very uplifting.

Verse 1 says Praise the Lord.    Then it proceeds to tell why we can sing praises to the Lord.   He builds up, He gathers the exiles, He heals the brokenhearted, He binds their wounds, He knows the stars and has named each one, He sustains the humble but casts the wicked to the ground, He covers the sky with clouds, He supplies the earth with rain, He makes the grass grow on the hills, He provides food for the cattle and the birds of the air, He delights in those who have reverent fear for Him, He delights in those who put their hope in Him, He gives strength, He gives peace.    Every thing in existence exists because God created it for a reason.   Nothing that God created can cause God to have fear.   God knows no fear, because He created everything.

We live in a world of uncertainty.    But, it is not uncertain to God.    He knows all about His creation because He is actively involved in His creation.    He also knows there is evil in the world because we, God's greatest creation, have "free will".    In our "free will" we either choose to serve God or we choose to ignore God.    In our ignor-ance of God, we choose evil.   We choose to inflict pain on others.    That is a choice that we make.    We can not sit on the fence.    We choose to serve God or we choose NOT to serve God.    Back to "not sitting on the fence", I heard it said the reason we can't sit on the fence is because the enemy, the devil, owns the fence.    No choice IS a choice to not serve the Lord.    Since we know there is pain and heartache due to people choosing NOT to serve God, we know that God does heal the broken hearted and God does bind up their wounds.

I know that God has healed my broken heart and He has bound up my wounds.    I pray that if He hasn't healed your broken heart and bound up your wounds that you will choose to let Him.    Christ died on the cross for my sins and your sins. Sin is a word we don't like to acknowledge, but until we do acknowledge sin and confess it, repent of it and invite Christ to be Lord of our lives, we will keep on hurting and being hurt.    "Hurting people hurt people."   That's just the way it is.   I can speak of that with a "been there, done that" knowledge, because I've "been there, done that".    I'm sure you have been there too.    Or you may even be there now, but you don't have to stay there.    Change is as close to you as whispering "help"!    Jesus Christ is ready to help you, but He is a gentleman, He will not force Himself on anyone.    But, just as quickly as you can say, "help", He will.

So, I sing praises to God for the help He has given me in my life.    I sing praises to God for the help He has given you.    I sing praises to God for the help He is waiting to give to those who are ready to receive His help.    Thank you God for loving Your creation enough to provide us help through Jesus Christ!!!

Ladybug, I sure hope you are feeling better and look forward to the days to come for you.    Sweetpea loves you bunches!!!

I hope you seen or read something here this evening that you liked.   If so, tell someone.   Share it, pass it on, just don't sit on it.   ggg

God love y'all and so do I.    Till next time, hugs, Patty

Happy New Year & Mini Tutorial

Happy New Year, Y'all!!!!   (toots and honks)    That was me blowing my party blowers.   hahaha   I do hope and pray that this day finds each and every one of you happy, healthy and warm.   It is pretty cold here, in my neck of the woods.   I really don't like days when the temp doesn't get above freezing, but, since I don't have any control over the weather, I'll stay in and be thankful to God that we have heat!   That sounds like a plan, doesn't it! 

Since it has been so cold, I've been trying to get a start on some of the swaps that I will be in for the month of January and some projects in general.   For one of my projects, I cut rectangles that were 1&1/2" wide by 2&3/4" long.   I used my Martha Stewart Corner rounder and rounded the corners.   Then I was going to use my Swiss Dots Cuttlebug Embossing folder on those little rectangles.   My hands are quite shaky these days and I couldn't get them to line up and stay put while I got my sandwich made for the cuttlebug.   So,,,,,,I thought and thought, and I had a plan in no time.   And, I really wanted to share it with y'all.   Hopefully, no one else has shaky hands, but, if you do, never fear, there's hope.   Here's what I done:

In the above pic, I turned my pieces over to the back side and put on very small pieces of scor-tape, less than a half inch.    I tried to make the pieces of scor-tape about a quarter inch.

In the above pic, I got my embossing folder ready and peeled the release paper from the scor-tape and placed my shapes on the folder and kept the release paper.

In the above pic, I have ran my folder thru my cuttlebug and embossed my images.  You can see that it shows up nicely.

In the above, final pic, I have taken the images, ""very carefully"", off the embossing folder, and then I replaced the release paper back over the tape.  The small piece of tape held it to the embossing folder very nicely.   When I get ready to apply those images to my project, I will just apply more scor-tape and I will be good to go.   This will definitely be something I will do in the future.

There is always something we can do to help ourselves and others to be able to craft better, quicker, and easier.   This is certainly something I will use more often, now, especially when I am embossing many pieces and don't want to do them all, one at a time.    I do hope and pray you found this useful in your crafting.    Even if you don't have shaky hands, this could still be useful when embossing a lot of small pieces with the same embossing folder.

One of my sisters in Christ texted me last night and we chatted back and forth for a while, and in the midst of our texting, she sent me this Scripture.   I love it!   We serve a praiseworthy God!!!!

 –Eph. 3:20-21 (NIV)
20.Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, 21. to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

This is what this scripture means to me:    Paul wrote this passage in praise and worship of how valuable God is in our lives.   We can't really even begin to imagine all that God is able to do.   No matter what your situation looks like with human eyes, take another look, with faith, and you will see, "Where God is, Hope is, also!!!!"   "God IS Able!!!!"   Praise the Lord!


I hope and pray that this year will be a great year for all of y'all!   Just know that y'all are loved and appreciated!

God Bless Y'all, hugs and much love, Patty