New Project

Good afternoon Y'all!   I pray that this update finds each and every one of y'all in a great way!   I hope the weather is pleasant where you are and that Spring is full on.   I know that some are still dealing with snow and ice and all kinds of weird weather, but I still believe God is in control of all of it.   If nothing else, this past Winter and early Spring is proving that God certainly has a sense of humor.   So much for "global warming"!   In a couple of months, we will have forgotten all about the up and down carnival ride we have had with the weather and we will be complaining about how hot it is.   Just you wait and see.   hahaha

The growing and blooming of all things Spring, as beautiful as it is, it has awaken my allergies and I am in a pickle with them.   When I get a little head congestion it seems as if my vertigo kicks in and I'm dizzy and nauseous and not very steady on my feet.   I have had minor symptoms for a couple of weeks but this week it has ramped up and I'm in a bad place with vertigo.   I just get in my nest when my husband leaves for work and that's pretty much where I stay.   I can get up and do around a little, but not very much and I get unsteady on my feet and very nauseous.   I do cherish your prayers as I try to get back on my feet.

I went to a baby shower over the weekend for a dear friend of mine who is gonna be a grandma for the first time.   It was such a lovely shower.   Lots of people and lots of wonderful gifts for the baby.   I never seen as much stuff.   I have been praying that she gets everything she needs for the short term, anyway.   There may be an item or two that she still needs, but hopefully, when all is said and done, she will have enough gift cards and cash to put towards what she still needs.

I made a tag similar to the one I made earlier for a bridal shower.   I am loving this steel rule postage stamp die from Sizzix.   It is wonderful for a tag.  I always make mine three layers thick, so it is beefier, much beefier than a one layer tag.   I use deco cardstock for both sides and a piece of chipboard/cereal box on the inside.   I run both pieces of deco cardstock thru my 510 Xyron machine.   Apply both pieces to the chipboard and then cut out my postage stamp tag.   I am not advising you to do yours like I did.   I am just telling that's how I did mine.   Once I get it cut out, I use a marker closest to the color of deco cardstock and color the edge all around the tag so no white is showing.   I punch a hole in one corner for all the threads and ribbons to loop thru.   I love to use a crackle background stamp and stamp all over one side of it.   Then I use what ever stamps I want to use and put images or sayings on it.   Then I love to make rosettes and put them on my tag.   For this particular one, I made an envelope with my envelope maker, the size of a gift card,  and put it on the back to put my gift in.   I did take a few pics and I hope you enjoy looking.

My baby images did not stand out really well because my background was really dark.   But, I still really liked the finished outcome.   There are some little baby duckies punched out and popped on there.   One of my dear friends gave me that little punch and it was perfect to use to put some on the tag.

The rosette is a six pointed star rosette.   You cut two pieces and join them to make the rosette.   

I used an ink pad over the top of the rosette to add some color to it and then inked up the white spot that I put on the top.   I cut the little length of cardstock to put my punched out "congratulations" from Spellbinders.   My Cuttlebug got a lot of use with this little project. 

This is the little envelope I made to attach to the back of the tag.   I dug around and found a pre-made sticker to seal the envelope with.

I cut several pieces of ribbon and threads and looped thru the hole I punched up in the corner.   It is a quite simple project and I enjoyed making it.   It is one of those "instant gratification" projects that I love to do.   It doesn't take a long time to make, but it kinda makes a statement once you get it made.   I love learning and every time I do a project I learn something.   I definitely learned to be aware of the colors that I use for my backgrounds, otherwise, my images that I stamp may not show up very well, or at least as much as I would love for it to show up.  Anyway, this is what I done and I hope you enjoyed seeing it.

As I leave you this afternoon, I ask you, have you ever been angry, about anything?   Sure you have!   We all have!    Ok, fess up, admit it, you have been angry.   Anger is not necessarily a bad thing.   It is a normal reaction to many different situations.   But, one of the things about anger, is that it is so easy to sin while we are angry.   Most of us have really never learned how to deal with our anger and not sin.   Why is that?   Basically, because it IS NOT EASY!!!   It may be one of the hardest things that we will ever do,  is to be angry and NOT sin.    The only way we will ever have any success at "being angry and not sin" is to have a close relationship with Jesus Christ.   We certainly can not do it on our own.   But, Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus and this is what he said to them;

Ephesians 4:26-27, "26 Be angry and do not sin. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and don’t give the Devil an opportunity."  

A lot of people don't put a whole lot of weight and authority in the teachings of Paul.   I believe that if we believe in Jesus Christ in any way; if we believe that any part of the Holy Scripture is God inspired, then we can't pick and choose what we believe.   We either believe it all or we believe none of it.   I personally believe that every word that Paul wrote was inspired to him personally by Jesus Christ.   Paul was an Apostle of Jesus Christ and he was adamant about correcting the heresy in the early churches.   Praise God for Paul!!!

Most of the time when we are dealing with anger, for any matter, we either suppress or express it.   Neither way is the way for Christians to deal with anger.  Suppressed anger builds up like poison and expressed anger usually involves verbal or physical attacks in some way.   Paul suggests us to recognize anger and to deal with it before the sun goes down on it.   Why in the world would Paul say "before the sun goes down on it"?   Because if you have time to stew and churn over it, it will become an even greater problem tomorrow.   Why?   If we don't deal with it before the sun goes down, then the enemy will get in on the situation and what was a petty issue will become a major situation giving you the opportunity sin.   How many lives have been lost due to unresolved anger?   How much misery exists in the world today because of unresolved anger?  Only God knows.    Every sin starts in the mind.    We have the opportunity to deal with while it is but a thought.   Give that thought to God and let Him deal with it for you.    I don't know who needed this today, besides me, but I pray that if you have an issue with anger, you will give it to the One who can deal with, because I know I can't and I doubt if you can deal with it on your own.   Let go and let God!

I hope y'all have a wonderful rest of the day and a great nights rest for a very special day tomorrow.   God love's y'all and so do I.   Please come back real soon.

I hope and pray that Ladybug is having a great week.  Sweet Pea loves you!

Much love and hugs till next time, Patty

New Project

Good morning folks!   It is an awesome and beautiful morning, here in my neck of the woods!   I pray that it is where where ever y'all are!    If it's not beautiful outside, just hang on, a few days can make a big difference.   Now, for me, with all the beauty on the outside at this particular time, my allergies are kicking up and I'm not enjoying that too much.   I just pray that it doesn't get me completely down.

Anyway, I have been telling y'all that I am behind on getting projects posted, so I thought I would get one up that I done here back.   I think I have mentioned that I want to start a nice collection of alcohol ink markers.   Well, I love Crafters Companion and placed an order a while back for a sample kit.   This kit makes a lovely tag.   In the kit you get two of the new style Spectrum Noir Alcohol Markers with dual tips.   If you haven't tried these and you want to, just click on the website in my list on the left hand side and you can look for it in "what's new".    It is only $3.95 with free shipping.   Well worth the price!!!!   So, I got it a month or so ago and got my tag made.   I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the markers!!!  Here are a few pics I took.

The above pic is of everything that came in the kit.  I forgot to take the pic "before" I colored my butterflies.   Oh well, hahaha.

This is the finished tag.   Now, I'm not the greatest at blending yet, and probably won't ever be, but I'm gonna keep trying anyway.   You color one butterfly and leave it flat and then you color the other butterfly and trim it out and then glue the bottom of one body to the top of the other body and let that dry and then bend up the top wings a little to give a little dimension to the butterfly. 

This is just a little close up of the butterfly.  You can't see the dimension in this shot at all.

Now the above shot is of the ribbon.   If you remember in the very top pic, the ribbon was white.   This is where I took the chisel tip of the markers and colored the pieces of ribbon with the markers.   If I do this again, I will color the ribbon from the back side instead of the front side.  The blue done very well.  The darker the color, the less alcohol is in the ink itself, so it went on really nicely.   The yellow went on really well also.   But, being new to alcohol markers, and not having an understanding of them, I colored the ribbon yellow from the front side and with the higher alcohol content in the yellow, due to it being a lighter color , the black dots started streaking.   That is TOTALLY MY fault!!!   I didn't know what I was doing.   DO NOT hear me blaming Spectrum Noir!!!   I have a whole more to learn about these markers and what I have seen so far, I LOVE THEM!! 

This is the two markers that came with the tag.   I am so thrilled with them, that I have decided to purchase a few of the starter six pack markers.   I had four 50% off coupons a couple of weeks ago and went to Joann's and got the first four sets of my collection.   The ones at Joann's are of the older generation, they are four sided instead of eight sided.   But, I still love them.   I hope to be able to develop my blending and shading skills.

As I leave you this morning, I leave you with a favorite passage of mine.  1 Peter 2:24 says "He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds (stripes) you have been healed."

We are going into the Easter season.   Our cantata is this coming Sunday morning on Palm Sunday.   When I read the Scripture above, it is a reminder that Jesus Christ has done for me what no other human on the planet could do for me.   He took my sins upon His body.   The stripes of pain that He bore on His body was what healed and cleansed me completely.  Jesus took the punishment for my sins so that I could be in a right relationship with God the Father.   We think about the cross and the tomb a lot of times when we think about what Jesus Christ has done for us.   Look up at the cross!   Jesus is not there!   Look in the tomb!   Jesus is not there!   HE IS RISEN!!!!   HE'S ALIVE!!!!  HE'S ALIVE!!!!   Praise the Lord, Hallelujah, HE"S ALIVE!!!!

I hope and pray that is the song of you heart and soul today!  He's Alive!!!!   I hope and pray that you know the healing and cleansing power of Jesus Christ.   If you don't, there's no time like the present.   Ask Jesus Christ to come into heart and life and to heal, cleanse, forgive you of all the past junk and live from this day forward with Jesus Christ at the front of everything you do.  It isn't easy to be  follower of the Way, but it is very rewarding.  The early Christians were called "Followers of the Way".   Jesus Christ is the "Way", the "Truth" and the "Life"!  And no one comes to the Father, except thru the "WAY!"

Have a wonderful rest of the day Y'all!   I'm happy you came to see me today and I hope you enjoyed your visit.   If you did, tell someone about it.

Ladybug, I hope you have a wonderful day today!  Sweet pea loves you and misses you!

God loves y'all, and so do I.  hugs and much love, Patty

March projects

Good evening y'all.   Has everyone adjusted to the time change?   Is everyone ready for spring?    We just have to roll with it, don't we.    Glancing over at the outside temp, it doesn't feel much like spring, but I do feel rest assured that it will start feeling more like it every day.   It won't be long till all the beauty of the awakening spring will be all around us and we will, once again, put winter in the back of our minds for the next few months.   I can't wait till the wild flowers start blooming.   Even some of the little flowering weeds are just beautiful and I can't wait.

There is a lot of sickness going around and I do pray for all these folks to feel much better soon.    Friends having surgery, some have already had surgery and recouping.   Friends having lost loved ones and dealing with the pain of that, I pray for them.   Many prayers on behalf of these folks.

I have been working on a few projects this month and I have a few pics to share with y'all.   I hope you enjoy what I have been up to.   I have gotten behind on so many little projects to be posted, but it's all good.    It's good to keep busy, even if I don't show y'all when I want to, I will get around to sharing sooner or later. 

The above two pics is of my "Bits and Bobs" card and envelope.   The bits and bobs are pieces laying around on my craft area, left over from other projects.  I had cut cards with a honeycomb background and the little hex pieces are from that.   I used a butterfly stamp and then I found the glittery, blingy, purple (all of my favorites, yay) butterfly that sat perfectly over the stamped butterfly and then the flourish at the bottom of the stamped butterfly.  I used a tiny butterfly stamp and stamped a few on the little hex pieces and then colored them a bit.   I carried the tiny stamped butterfly image on to the envelope to tie them together.   Then I used some taupe colored half pearls in the corners of the card.    I really enjoyed making this card.

My atc (Artist Trading Card) is simple, to say the least, but they made me smile.   I loved all the little St. Patrick's Day images I had.   I put a layer of cardstock on each side of a piece of cereal box, then cut them out with my sizzix atc die.   I used a square check background on the diagonal and stamped it in green.   I inked the edges of the atc with a brown ink pad after I used a brown marker on the edges of the atc to color the white edges.  I inked the little image lightly with a brown ink pad to make it look a little aged.  I then pulled out some liquid bling (hahaha) and put a little glitter on this little girl talking to her best friend.   (She is actually me and one of my friends, hahaha)   She makes me happy, as they all did.   I made 6 of these.

This was my tag.   It is called "black magic".   I'm not really fond of the name, but I love the technique!   As usual, I always do my "own" thing with these techniques.   It is supposed to be white stamped on black.   I stamped my image in white on a navy blue tag.   I then inked the sides of the tag with a silver metallic ink.  After you stamp the white image on your dark cardstock, once the white has dried, you take color pencils and color the image.  I then used my white souffle pen to enhance the white stamped image and made a series of dots white dots all over the image, randomly.   I then used several pieces of threads and ribbons and looped them thru the hole in the tag.   I love all the threads and ribbons.   I really loved this technique.  I will be doing more samples of this.

This is my ornament with a church and a girl dancing with an Easter Bunny on the other side.   I am so loving these ornaments.   At the end of the year, my friend and I will have a year of collectible ornaments.   I am making them with glitter cardstock on both sides with a piece of cereal box in between so they are beefy feeling.   Then I use various sizzix dies to cut them out and punch a hole in the top for a seam-binding hanger with the year printed on a tag and stuck to the seam binding.

That's it for this go-around.   I'll be back soon with some more good stuff, so stay tuned, ok.   I hope you enjoyed what you seen here and I hope and pray that you make plans to join me back here again.   I'll be looking for ya'!

As I leave you tonight, I ask y'all, "To "whom" do you show gratitude, and for "what" do you show gratitude?    Kind of a funny question, huh?    Well, we show gratitude to friends when we know they care about us.   We show gratitude to someone who has done something for us when we needed help.   We show gratitude when we know that people have been praying for us.   We show gratitude to a lot of different people for many different reasons.

Psalm 138:1 says: "I will give You thanks with all my heart; I will sing Your praise before the heavenly beings."

Notice that David praised God with all his heart.   Gratitude for God's blessings upon David's life consumed him and he couldn't contain it!    He praised God continuously, regardless of his situation.   God wants us to love Him, obey Him, serve Him and worship Him with all our heart.    Who else do we credit with all the blessings in our lives?    I know for myself, that unless God allows it, my heart won't beat!    I know for myself, that unless God allows it, my lungs will not fill with air and release on a regular basis!    I know for myself, that unless God wills it, my eyes won't blink!    Absolutely everything my body does to sustain life is done because God allows it.   For that, Father God, I will praise You with all my heart, all the days of my life.   I praise You, Father God for providing a way to have a right relationship with you thru Jesus Christ!   I will sing praises to You!

Good night y'all, may you have pleasant dreams and a rest filled night!   God love's y'all and so do I!     Hugs, Patty

February Swaps

Good afternoon, y'all!    I pray that y'all are having a wonderful, fun filled and crafty day!    It has been raining here in my neck of the woods most of the day, with lots of heavy wind.    Seems like when it's rainy, I kinda have a rainy mood.    So, the best place for me today is right here, getting caught up with some projects for y'all to see.    I have been busy here lately, but today, has really been a lazy day for me.    I think I have been trying to refuel, since a great weekend.    We had a very full day at church yesterday.    It was just a great day to be in the presence of the Lord!    So, today has been a slow day, with plans for a busy week ahead.

I have gotten all my swaps for the month of February in the mail, some have already reached their destinations and some are still in the mail system hoping to be received tomorrow.    I made a card, a tag, artist trading cards, and ornament.   I did make pics of course, and I want to share them with you.

The above two pics are of my atc.   It was supposed to be "pastels" in hopes of Spring being just around the corner.    I stamped my image in Memento london fog, which is gray.   Then I used my water color pencils and a blender pen.    I stamped my sentiment and when all was dry, I took three of my little Studio ink disks and just lightly touched the edges all around to color the background and then I used a lot of my glitter glues to get the bling going.   hahaha  Gotta bling!

The above three pics are of the "green and Spring" card swap.    So the green is my background and I also used my green water color pencil on her dress.    I used a new stamp I had just gotten, and I do love the elegance of her.   I stamped the sentiment, added a little bling and then I brushed the whole layer of the lady with a coat of Deco Art Glamour Dust, Ice Crystal Paint.   Love, love, love it!    It is a new product I had just gotten and I will be using it a lot!    I put a couple of purchased stickers and some stick on gems.    If you will notice in the pic below, I also added some hand made flowers.   The flowers were cut with a die that is about the size of my thumbnail.   Then I used a quilling tool to roll the tiny flower and glued it.    Then I cut the little leaves to go with the flowers.    They really are so tiny.    I will make a pic of the flower with a dime and show you later on.    Click on the pics to enlarge and hopefully you can see the tiny flowers better.

This is a pic of all my swaps together.    I hope you can see the tiny flowers on the card above.    There is an ornament between the card and the atc.   That is the ornament I made for the ornament swap.    I'm in this with a friend and we do this each month and we are having a great time with these.    The ones I have been making are themed for the year and I'm calling them "Victorian Ornaments".    I am searching for victorian style, free images and using them for my ornaments.    I love them and they are fun to make.   This one was to have a tea pot on it for a sign of "hospitality".    It is two sided, with a diff pic on the back.   I am so mad at me, that I did not get a pic of the ornament by itself.   I could just smack myself.

The above four pics are of my tag swap.    It is the brick wall technique.   I have already showed you one that I had done earlier for another swap that had gotten lost in the mail and the purple one was a replacement for my friend.    This is the one for this months swap.    I am so in love with technique!    I cut my tag on my Cameo Silhouette.    It is from the Silhouette Store.    I enlarged it and cut two layers and ran a layer through my 5 inch Xyron and stuck the two layers together.    I lightly inked the edges of the tag with a brown ink disk.   Then I took a piece of white Georgia Pacific paper and stamped my crackled background with olive green and then I stamped my rose.   I colored the rose with several diff colors of water color pencils.  After it was dry,  I cut it in brick fashion, being careful not to loose the placement of each piece.   After I got it glued down and that dried, I then added a little faux stickles for sparkle and bling.   I stamped my sentiment and then put my ribbons and threads through the loop and it was finished.   Then I had fun with my GooseBumps!    I just love the Goosebumps!    I loved making this months swaps!    I hope you enjoyed looking at them.

As I leave you this evening I ask, "What have you done today?"   Has today been important to you in any way?    Every Sunday at church, one of our Ministry Leaders will ask the congregation what today is?    There is one faithful saint that he will always call on to tell him what today is.   She will always say, "This is the day the Lord has made; we will be glad and rejoice in it." Psalm 118:24

I pray that y'all have been able to say that you have been glad and rejoiced in today!    Every day is not going to be a perfect day, or live up to our expectations.   But, when we have a proper perspective on every day, we can always find something great in it.   Every day of your life and mine has been given to us by the Creator of the day!!!    I don't know about y'all, but I cherish that!   God created the universe in an orderly and reasonable manner.   Much thought went into creation.    With that in mind, have we all been glad and rejoiced in this day?    I sure hope so!    God really had all of us in mind when he spoke the universe into existence!    Let's determine in ourselves, that we will be glad and rejoice in every day that God allows us to be a part of!   Sounds like a plan!

God bless y'all!   Thanks for stopping by and I hope y'all make plans to visit again, soon.

Hugs and much love, Patty

Tag for a Swap

Howdy Doody Folks!!!    I sure hope y'all are having a great week.    I know that many of our friends are still dealing with horrendous weather.     I keep praying for all of y'all who are trying to make it from one day to the next with all the snow and cold you have had.    We have had a lot of "much" below normal temps, but we have been very blessed in our neck of the woods to have missed out on most of the "precipitation" weather.     For that, I am so thankful, but I do still keep everyone in my prayers.    I just know that spring will eventually make it.    When it does, I promise not to complain "too much" about it getting to hot or being hot. You have my permission to remind me, later on, if I do start complaining. ggg

Since it's been cold and I don't like to be out and about in the cold weather, I have been in my craft room more here lately.     And, I have been having a ball!!

This is a tag I made for a swap.     The tag I made and mailed off in January, did not make it to the person I mailed it to.    Thank you USPS! gggg    My friend was very gracious about it and said I did not have to make another one to replace it.     I love getting the little packages of artsy goodness in the mail, and I also love sending them.    So, I wanted to make another one for her.    And I must say, I am so happy I did.    This was a new technique to me and I am hooked!

 

This is called the "brick wall technique".    I know I did not do it exactly like the was the tutorial called for it to be done, but, that's ok, as far as I'm concerned.    We all have the creative freedom to put our own spin on something and I did on this tag. 

 

 

A brief description of how I done mine is, I actually cut the purple tag with my Silhouette Cameo.     I cut two tags and put one piece of it through my Xyron and then put the two pieces together.    I love the feel of a beefy tag.    I took my white card stock and used my fav "crackled" background stamp, then I stamped my rose.    I used my water color pencils and colored it in.    I then took a lite fuchsia ink disk and tamped it down over all of the white area.    I then cut it in strips a little less than 1/2 inch.    I then cut the strips in brick fashion.    Being real careful not to mess up the pieces and keep them in order.     Then I took my black ink disk and inked all the edges.    The black was a real deep contrast, but I thought it worked really well.    After it all dried, I started at the bottom and worked myself up to the top.    Placing each piece and leaving a little space between each piece and each line.    Then I stamped the word "love" up in the right hand corner.     After that dried, I put my threads through the hole at the top and laid it in my spray box and I sprayed it with Goosebumps.     I really love the looks and feel of Goosebumps.    Well, there you have it, my tag.    I hope you enjoyed seeing it.    I certainly had a ball making it.

Be on the look out here, because I have a whole lot more stuff to show y'all in the near future.    I just can't get it all uploaded fast enough.    So, keep checking back from time to time.    Ok.

John 3:16. For God so loVed the world thAt He gave His onLy bEgotten SoN, thaT whoever believes In Him should Not perish but have Everlasting life.

As I leave you tonight, I leave you with warm Valentine wishes!     Did you know that God gave you and me a Valentine?     It's in the verse above.     Can you see our Valentine as you read the Scripture?    Oh, it's there!     Yes, I know you see it.    Had you ever seen it before?    Do you have any idea how much you and I mean to God?    We mean so much to Him that He gave us a special Valentine.    Jesus Christ is our Valentine!    Thank you, Father, that you loved us enough to give us the very best that You had to give, Jesus Christ!

Happy Valentines Day to all of you!!! Much love and 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

Pics of some Swaps posted

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Good evening and Hugs y'all,  Patty