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

New Project

Well, howdy doody, Y'all!   It seems like it has been forever since I updated my blog.   For that, I do apologize.   Sometimes I get busy and don't mean to neglect it, but y'all know, it just happens.   I do believe that's what we call, "life getting in the way".   And, that's totally ok.

In my neck of the woods, we have been in a deep freeze.   Kinda like being in a freezer for a couple of weeks.   On January 25th it was really cold.  How cold was it?   It was just a smidgen bit below 0*.   I jumped outta bed and ran thru the house to check the thermometer on the deck and I almost fainted.   I grabbed my coat, sandals and camera.   Have camera, will shoot! 

I have been trying to sleep and keep one eye on the thermometer.  hahaha   That is making me tired.   These temps are NOT the norm from where I come from.   The way I see it, it kinda shoots down the "global warming" theory.   My theory is this,  God is gonna do what God wants to do.  We can blame it on global warming or we can say, "Ok God, YOU are in control, and we are along for the ride."   I'm lovin' the ride!   How 'bout you?

Well, in between watching the thermometer and napping, ggg, I have been working on some projects.   I thought I would share a small project with you.   I have had a great time working on this.   I am working on a set of Victorian style ornaments.   Just doing a month at a time.   I used a cereal box and covered both sides with glitter cardstock that I run thru my 5 inch xyron and then cut them out.   I used my sizzix ornaments dies and cut the glittered ornaments with my cuttlebug.   Then I found some free Victorian style images  and cut them out with my little scissors.   Most of the time now, I will cut them with my Cameo, but if I forget and print them before I have brought the images into my software, then I will just cut them by hand.   After I get the images stuck to the both sides of my ornaments, then I will bling them up with my glitter glue, faux stickles.   Well, here they are, I hope you enjoy them.

I took some old seam binding and made some hanging loops.   I also took a sharpie marker and went all around the edges of the ornaments to hide the white edges.   I am really loving making these ornaments.  I have a couple more months of ornaments in the works.    Keep an eye open for them to show up here before long.   I actually have several projects to show you in the next few weeks.

That's about it for tonight.  But, before I leave you tonight, I would like to take the opportunity to tell you again that God loves you!   The love that God has for His creation; us, is the ultimate Valentine!   There is no greater love than the love that God has for us, through the blood of Jesus Christ!   Christianity has been described as "one beggar telling another beggar where the Bread is".   We are the beggars sharing the message of Christ with other other beggars.   Jesus Christ is the Bread of Life that we are sharing!   Do you know someone in your circle of influence that needs to know about the Bread of Life?   If you do, please share.   Remember, someone once shared the Bread of Life with you.   I can't think of a better way to share a Valentine this year, than to tell someone that God loves them.

Stay warm, y'all!   God loves y'all and so do I!  hugs, Patty

Ornament Swap

Good afternoon to Y'all!  I do pray that where ever you are that the sun is shining, at least in your heart.  The sun is not shining here and I think it may have forgotten how to shine.  Just a gloomy day.  A good day to craft.

I thought I would give you a quick update on my back issue.  It is much better, praise the Lord!!!  Still need to be a little watchful about how I do around, but it is sooooo much better.  Thank you for the prayers.

I do have an issue with the meds I was taking.  "Was" being the operative word here.  My face started getting warm and then just plain hot on Thursday afternoon.  By Friday, it was getting a real pinkish color and still warm to the touch.  This morning I looked like someone colored my face with a beet overnight!!!  Yes, you heard me right, a beet!!!  Certainly NOT my choice for a make up color.  gggg  My eye lids, nose and both cheeks clear around to my ears and down my neck.  It is warm and itches.  Kinda reminds me of the story I posted about my dear brother and me getting in to sumac.  I do hope this is short lived.  We'll see if vanity plays a very big role in my life in the morning, getting ready for church, if it is still beet red.  If I am not sick, I will be there, beet red face and all!  Anyway, this is the way it stands at the moment, y'all.

I am in another swap.  This is an ornament swap.  I really enjoyed making this one.  I used a black glitter cardstock for the base of the card.  It was to be a two sided ornament, so I cut two pieces of black glitter cardstock and glued them back to back.  Used a black marker around the edges to color the white that was showing.  Then I cut the fronts and backs, which was the same image, just flipped the image for the back.  I used glossy accents to glue the images to the glitter cardstock.  Then I got out some bling and blinged it up a little.  I put some ribbon through the holes I cut with my cropodile.  I did make a small little tag to put on the ribbon with my name and date on one side and the name of the swap on the other side.  The recipient can easily tear that off or leave it on.  I just like to put my name on what I do.  So, here is some pics:

Ok, so I really wish the glitter showed up better.  They are really glittery and look great in hand.  I also wish I had a better way of getting good pics.  I don't have great lighting and a flash washes out a lot of stuff, so I just piddle till I get something half way tolerable.  Anyway, I hope you enjoyed looking at my "not so fancy ornaments", but I really had a great time making them.

I want to thank you for stopping by.  I pray that you have a wonderful evening, a great night's rest and a wonderful Sunday.  Find time tomorrow to spend with your Creator.  He will enjoy it and so will you.  Time spent with God is time well invested.  You can only come away from that experience a better you!  While with Him, ask Him to let you see the world and those around you through His eyes!  Ask Him to break your heart for what breaks His heart!  Ask Him to give you the desire to live purposefully and thoughtfully!  Just these things alone, will make all the difference in the way you live the rest of your life. I pray for you to do it.  See for yourself, the difference that Jesus Christ can make in your life.  God loves y'all and so do I.

Be blessed and hugs, y'all, Patty

Fair week

Well, this week is fair week.  I worked on a lot of different projects last week to get them finished and ready to enter in our fair.  I really don't expect anything to win any ribbons, but everything entered earns points for my FCE club.  so I had sixteen items to enter.  It was fun getting everything entered at the fairgrounds on Sunday after church.  The judging was to be today, but I haven't seen or heard if I actually won on anything or not, keep your fingers crossed for me.

This is my rosette turkey.  I did not get a good shot of him.

 This is a flower pot pincushion.  The top part lifts up so you can store thread, etc. in it.

 This is my stocking card, again, not a very good shot.

 This is a close up of the top of the stocking.

 This is my earrings.

 Bracelet to match.  Did not have time to get the necklace made, but I will.

 This is a flour sack towel with the image drawn onto it with permanent marker.  Colored with crayons, then heat set with iron.  I stamped a bumblebee in several places.

 This is a free hand water color pansy.  I done this one night at a make and take craft party.   I have never done water colors before, but i really enjoyed doing that.  I know, I know, it is really not good!!

This is a scarf I crocheted with the sachet thread, it is purple ombre in color.

 This is a stepping stone that I made at another make and take.  The mixture was made up and poured into cake pans and before it set up we placed colored glass fragments in it.  I really enjoyed making that also.  Again, its not really great at all, but none of my stuff is.

 This is my little bonsai dogwood sculpture tree.

 This is a little quilled baby feet tag.  I love this.

 This is the sentiment I put on it.  so... the story goes with 10 tiny toes.

This was a glass ball ornament from another make and take.  Coat the ball quickly with mod podge and quickly spoon colored seed beads all over it.  Carefully let it dry and then decorate as desired.

This is my God's Promises box.  I absolutely love making these boxes.  The butterflies are fussy cut from a sheet of butterfly paper.  Then I hand rolled each flower and colored and decorated them up.  I used a spellbinder die to make a small mat for the butterflies and flowers to sit on.

 A close up of flowers.

 A little better shot of the box.

I just realized that I did not get pics of everything I entered.  Hopefully, when I get my stuff back next Sunday, I will remember to take shots of what I forgot.  Anyway, like I said , really nothing spectacular at all, but it is fun.  I really need to start planning ahead of time, instead of waiting till the last minute.  Oh, well, I hope you enjoyed looking at some of the stuff I entered.  Will update when I can on if anything won anything.  I'll not hold my breath, counting on a win!!! gggg

This morning was a really big blessing for me at the grocery store.  H. G. Hill had their frozen 1 lb. bag of beans on sale for .99 cents a bag. WOW!!! WOW!!! WOW!!! That was 1.30 off each bag.  Even at Wal mart they are 1.58 a bag every day.  So this was still .59 cents cheaper than WM.  So, I ended up getting 30 bags of beans.  With the money I saved on the beans, I bought 2 big pkgs. of boneless pork spare ribs, 2 big pkgs of ground beef, a huge beef roast, and a pkg of country ham.

So, what I love to fix is this: a pkg of frozen beans in the bottom of my electric pressure cooker, a cup and a half of water over them, a teaspoon or more of ham base seasoning, put my rack down on the beans, put a pkg of spare ribs, or pork chops, or ham, on the rack, then put in a couple or more of frozen ears of corn, and then a couple of Idaho potatoes.  Process that for twenty to twenty five minutes after it comes to full heat.  While all that is cooking, whip up a batch of cornbread wedges and we have a couple of meals on that.  It is absolutely fantastic!!!!!  One pot to clean up!!!!  Love, Love Love it!!!!

Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed your visit.  Maybe you seen something that you want to try .  Maybe you even got a little bit hungry for some good ole comfort food.   What ever you take away from today's visit, please make plans to visit again.  Who knows what you'll find on here.  Thanks for stopping by and may God bless you today in a mighty way!!!

hugs, Patty