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

Welcome July and Two New Cards

Greetings one and all y'all!!!    God Bless every one of y'all as we go into the month of July and as we celebrate "Independence Day".    What does that day mean to you personally?     I hope, where ever you are, and what ever country you happen to live in, that those words, alone, mean something to you.    Here in the great country of the United States of America, those two words mean an awful lot.    There was much blood shed and loss of life to gain our independence from another great country.    We should never forget that our freedom was purchased at a GREAT price!!!!     I pray that as we go into this holiday weekend, that each and every one of us will take the time to pause and thank God for the blessings that He has bestowed upon this great country!

I made a couple of cards recently for some friends that have been recovering from surgery.    I hope the cards will be an encouragement and uplifting for both of them.   

This is a new stamp set that I ordered.     It is Hello Daisy from JustRite Papercraft that I ordered through Blitsy.

I love the boldness of the flower.   As usual, here lately, I'm trying to use my Spectrum Noir Alcohol Markers.

The flower itself, doesn't require much coloring, if you choose to go that route.   After I got the image colored, I used my Studio brand glitter glue, or faux stickles, as I call it.    After all, I just gotta add a little bling.   hahaha

I used my standby Spellbinders die and Cuttlebug to cut and then I inked the edge so it would stand out on the card front.   I also inked the card front ever so slightly with a purple, yeah, my fav color.

I was really happy with this image and I'm sure it will become a favorite of mine.

This is the second card I made using the same stamp.   I used the Sizzix Postage Stamp Die to cut this image.    When I got it cut, I used my Martha Stewart Score Board to make the straight lines just inside the scallops indented a little more than they were.   I am trying to find something else that I like as well as I like the Spellbinders Die, just so they all won't look the same.   Anyway...

I oriented the stamp differently on the front of this card.    I inked the edges and also the raised straight lines inside the scalloped edge.    Then I took some of my liquid pearls and went around the scalloped edge.    I really loved that, it makes it look like lace when you are holding it.

In the center of this flower, after I used my faux stickles all over the flower,I used my glossy accents and covered the center of the flower.  I loved that also.

This is just a close up of the swirly effect of the liquid pearls.  

I really liked this card and I know I will use the stamp more and more.   When I was finished with both cards, I went around the images with a pale blue for this one and a pale gray for the other one.   I love to do that to give a bit of dimension to the stamped image.    Any way, I hope you have enjoyed looking at my latest two cards.

As I leave y'all today,  I would love to share another scripture with you.

Isaiah 41:13 says, "For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, "Fear not, I am the One who helps you."

Have you ever thought about holding hands with God?    Maybe you don't, but He does.     God wants to hold our hand with His "right" hand.    There is all power, all strength, all favor, all glory in the Father's right hand.    God is the One who helps you!    God is the One who says to you, "Fear not!"

Recently a sister in Christ asked me where God was at in my early life.    All I could say at the time was, "I don't know".     She asked me if I would like to know.     I said, "I really don't know if I want to know."     On the way home from our visit, I asked God where He was.    This is the response I got that evening while in the kitchen, cleaning up a bit, and in the blink of an eye, the answer was,  ""God spoke to me thru the Holy Spirit and said, "When your hands were clenched, as if making a fist, you weren't;  I was with you, holding your hands!!!""

Picture, if you will, someones hands in a closed manner.    Anyone seeing those hands would assume they had made fists, and getting ready to fight.    Ok, now picture those same hands holding hands with God.    There's no fight in those hands at all.    Just the hands of God holding my hands.    To think that God loves me enough to hold my hands is more than my feeble mind can comprehend.    Thank you God, for loving me and being my El Rohi, "the God of Strength who sees me".

God has held my hands my whole life and I praise Him for that!    I'll bet that God has held your hands too.    There's only two people that I want to hold hands with and that is my husband and God.    Just knowing that God has held my hands in the past, it does not matter what the future brings, because I know He'll hold my hands through it.

I hope and pray that you have a right relationship with Father God, through the blood of Jesus Christ.   If not, then maybe this is the time or the weekend  for you to have an "Independence Day" from sin.   Knowing that your "freedom" from sin was bought and paid for with the blood of Christ.   Christ died for one and all, only once.    One death was sufficient saving grace for me, and everyone before me, and everyone after me.   One death paid the penalty for "all" sin.    But, you don't automatically have the ransom just because you belong to the human race.    You have to acknowledge the sin in your life, repent, and ask Jesus Christ to be the Lord and Savior of your life.    He will!    He wants to hold your hand!     Jesus wants to be your, "Fear Not"!    Let Him, you won't be disappointed.    Happy Independence Day!!!!

Ladybug, I hope you are staying cool!    Praying for the days ahead!    I love you bunches and look forward to time with you soon.   Sweetpea loves you!

Where ever you are, what ever country you live in, I pray for all to have a happy and blessed weekend ahead.    God loves y'all and so do I!   hugs, Patty

Happy February and a Project

Good evening, Y'all!!!   Tell me something, if you can.    WHERE in the world did January go?????    I went to bed last night and it was Christmas Eve, and I get up this morning and it's February 1st!   Wow, Wow,Wow!!!   That's what it feels like anyway.   We are already a full month into 2014.   But, when I stop and remind myself that I am not the keeper of time and God is, then it's ok.   The one thing I am responsible for is trying to make good use of the time that God has graciously alotted me.   I have had to opportunity to study and dig deeper into the Word of God in preparation for teaching Sunday School Class for the next four Sundays.   I have had the opportunity to speak with and share with dear friends.   I have had the opportunity to pray for those around me that are sick, hurting, and have lost loved ones.   When we lose someone close to us, we may not know how to deal with that loss.   God does.   So, if you have lost a loved one or a dear friend, ask God to help you deal with that pain and loss, and He will.   There are many ways of making good use of the time that God has graciously given us, and these are just a few ways that I have been using my time.    I have also been crafting, that is also time that I get to spend with the Lord, so I really enjoy that time.

The project I want to share with y'all today is another challenge.   This particular challenge was to create a Valentines card and NOT use the typical red and pink colors.    Ok y'all, I'm gonna let y'all in on a secret, I love PURPLE!!!   There was a little lady in the Bible that was the seller of purple cloth.    That is where my love of purple comes from.    As Paul Harvey always said, "now you know the rest of the story".    So, y'all, I love purple and that was the color I chose for my card.   I had a fun time with this project.   Challenges can get you out of your comfort zone.    So, I did take a few pics and wanted to share them with you.

The above pic shows all the items that I used on this card other than the card stock.   I really enjoy using my Cuttlebug for a lot of things.   It does speed the process up if I am just doing a small project, like this.    I  am going to let y'all in on a really good tip.   If you have a manual cutter and can use the sizzix dies, check out the Sizzix website on a regular basis.    See that red box with the clear lid on it, it is a set of alphabets, Pep Squad is the name of it.   That is a $150.00 dollar set of alphas that I got for $4.99.  Yes, you read that right, I got that for 499 pennies!    They have such wonderful deals from time to time.    I really probably should not tell y'all, you won't leave any deals for me. ggggg  

The above two pics are close ups of the products I used.    If you click on the pics, it will give you a larger shot so you can get a better view of the items.    The heart on the end is a sizzix embosslit.    It cuts and embosses in one pass thru the machine.

So, this is the front of the card.   The cardstock I used has thread fibers in it.   You can't tear the cardstock, it has to be cut with scissors.   I cut two of the silver hearts and used one on the outside and I put my "u" on it.    I used the lower case of the alpha for all my letters.   I cut the key hole section from plain white cardstock.   Then I put a base coat of the Inka Gold Metallic Rub on it and then buffed it.   It needed something else, so I finally decided on the Ferro Special Effects Paste.   It really was a hit or miss, but I really liked the way it turned out.

On the inside of the card, on the backside of the front, is where I put my keys with a little knot of purple seam binding tied around each key and then glued them down.    Did I say I love purple?    The keys are cut from black glitter stock.  Can I just say, I love the black glitter stock.   It is fab.

This is the inside of the card, the bottom portion, where your verse or sentiment is usually placed.   I wanted to leave room for a personal message to my "Valentine". ggg    I also used my clear star Sakura gelly roll pen to add a little sparkle to the purple letters. 

Ok, so this is a close up of the key hole section.    The Ferro Special Effects Paste looks like cement, kinda.   It actually has ground stone in it and you can really see it close up.    I just love the stuff, and I wondered when I bought it, if I would even use it.    YES, is the resounding answer.    When it dried really good, it has the look and feel of really old metal of some sort.

You can see the black in that key hole and that is a scrap of the black glitter stock.    I didn't know what to put that special effects paste on with, so I just stuck my finger in it and started smearing it on.   hahaha     I wouldn't recommend you doing it that way.    (My finger hasn't fallen off yet, so I guess it will be ok.)   ggggg

I used liquid pearls to make my little nail heads on my key hole and also for some little bling spots on the front of my card.     Up in the top two or three pics, you will see a tube of Aileens tacky glue.   It is actually pen-like.   You can sort of write the glue on the back of something and it really sticks like "stink"!    I love it.    I hope you have enjoyed seeing this project.    It was a very satisfying project to finish.   I made a dimensional envelope to put it in along with an easel.

February is known as the month of Love.    There is no greater love, known to man, than the love that Jesus Christ has for you and me!    If you know the love of Jesus Christ personally, you know how precious that is.    We all have people in our circles of influence that need to know that same love.    God has placed those people in our lives for a reason.    Are we willing to share the love of Jesus Christ with them?    It's one thing to know Christ, it's a totally different thing to share Christ.    Share the ultimate Valentine, Jesus Christ with someone you love.  I promise, neither of you will regret it.

That's all I have for y'all this evening, Valentines.   So, meet me back here in a few days for another great project and hopefully y'all will have told someone about Jesus Christ and you can tell me about it.    That's the plan, my friends, until then, God bless each and every one of y'all.

Hugs and much love to all of you, Patty

Happy Sunday!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

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