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

Tag for a Shower

Good evening y'all!   I do hope that you are enjoying a fabulous Saturday with the one you love.   I know I am.   I hope you are having some sunshine today.  The weather, now that is a subject and a half, isn't it?    We got up this morning with an inch or so of snow and when the sun came out it really blasted the snow away.    But, it still feels really cold.    I keep having warm, spring thoughts and that brings on hot flashes, (hahahaha) so I just believe I will quit thinking about the weather and play in my craft room.   How's that?   Sounds like a plan to me.

So, play in my craft room, I did!   We are having a Bridal Shower for one of our young ladies at church tomorrow after morning services.   I had gotten her gift and started to just go ahead and buy the usual small note card to go on it with some kind of bow.   I thought, naaa, don't want to do that.   I'll see what I can come up with, and then if necessary, I'll buy something.   So I took out my Cuttlebug and some dies and a couple of hours later, here's what I had. 

This is what I came up with.   Yes, it is very non-conventional, but you know what, so am I.   I took 2 sheets of 4x6, lite purple cardstock and ran one sheet of it thru my Xyron machine and then stuck the two pieces together to beef up the weight of it.   I used my Sizzix postage stamp die and cut it.   The cross is Spellbinders d-lite die.    The heart is a Nellie Snellen die.   The round rosette on top of the heart is a small Sizzix rosette. 

I punched a hole in the upper right hand corner of the stamp tag and pulled a loop of all the yarns through the hole and the pulled the ends through the loop and snugged them down on the corner.   You can't see the yarns very well, but you will in another pic.

I laid the tag on top of the gift and taped it on with tape across the threads of yarn at the top of the tag and then popped the heart on with dimensional foam.   She should be able to take both off and be able to save them if she so desires.

I was thrilled with the way the heart came out.   I took one of my little ink pads and inked the top  and the edges of the rosette after I had put them together.   If I had it to do over again, I would ink all the edges as soon as I took them from the cuttlebug.   Then I would have inked them again, after I was done with it.   But, I am still happy with the overall affect.   Then I put a piece of bling on the very top of the rosette.   Hey, you know me, gotta have a little bling! ggg

I love this cross from Spellbinders.   I punched that out of just plain old Georgia Pacific cardstock.   Why?   That's what I had.   I took my Viva Decor Inka Gold in violet and rubbed that on, then I took the silver, same product, and buffed that over the violet.   I absolutely love that stuff!   Then I put a small half pearl in each corner of the cross.

On the background of the cardstock itself, I took a stamp called "crackled background" by Delta and inked it up in red and stamped all over the stamp after I cut it out.   I also used a Dew Drop satiny silver on the edges.  I really like the way it turned out.   The red on the lite purple looks really neat.  

I used my new fiskars stamp helper thingy, I forgot what it's called, and stamped the "congratulations" on first.  Then I had another unmounted stamp.   It is red rubber on a thin gray foam pad with no reverse image, so, I got it off kilter some.   Believe it or not, I never even noticed it, until I seen the pics.   I was ready to smack myself silly.  Then I remembered, nothing about me is perfect, why should I expect everything I do to be perfect.   I ain't, it ain't!   So, there you go.

I thought this scripture is perfect for any bride and most surely for this precious young lady.

This is the last pic and I took the tag threads and brought them to the top so you could see them a little better.   I was really pleased with the overall finish of my project today.    It did not start out to be a blog post, but hey, what can I say?   I was so stinkin' excited I had to share it with y'all!   As always, I appreciate your looking at my project and I hope you can use it as inspiration or ideas.

As I leave you this evening, I desire to remind you of this, "The only safe place to build your life is on God's Word."   That goes along with our Sunday School Lesson for tomorrow.   As a matter of fact, it is the point of the lesson.   We live in a world that believes in no "absolute" standards of right and wrong, but, God IS the standard!   The way we live our lives, is based totally on our belief system. If God is first place in your life, it will show, if He isn't, that will show also.   I challenge you to read God's Word for five minutes a day.   I challenge you to start with the book of John.    John talks about the deity of Jesus Christ.   I love the book of John for that reason.   I challenge you to read it deliberately and slowly, letting what you read sink in to your soul.    That's the best way to build your life on God's Word and it's also a great place to be, in God's Word.    Ok, y'all, who's up for a challenge?   Call it the "Love Challenge".   Let's take this challenge, y'all!    You are loved!    Jesus Christ is our One, True Love! 

Hugs Y'all, and much love, Patty