Happy Birthday, America.

Thanks!

Since the last time I posted, soooo much has happened.  --Including me getting the flu.  I don't even catch colds that often, and I can't remember having the flu since my daughter who is now a senior in hight school was a baby. I remember because we were sick together.  I've had lots of other ailments, but not the flu.  Ok, you got the picture.  Getting sick like this is rare for me, and I did NOTHING for 5 days but lay on the couch and sleep...well sleep and the other flu stuff... I'm really not used to doing nothing. Right now, I'm fine except I have NO VOICE...AT ALL!!!  I just want you to know that it is FRUSTRATING!!! I have so much to say. LOL....

At least I can "talk" to you.  I walked with my new neighbor today.  It was so frustrating not being able to talk, but she was nice enough to carry the conversation for the both of us. : )  I'm working on a card for her....  shhhh  don't tell her.  I finished one and then decided that I didn't like it so, I'm going to re-do it.  I've lost my coloring mojo.  I probably need to take a real break from it all. Or maybe just color what I'm in the mood to color.  Speaking of which, the weather is beautiful today so maybe I'll do some flower coloring. This will be the last of my "Manly" or "suitable for the fellas" cards for just long enough for me to get a flower fix.  

About this card...

 

I'm not even sure if this image is still available, but I purchased it from Biblical Impressions several years ago.  I really hate to use stuff  that is unavailable and show it online, so sorry about that. 

I did want to show you that this simple card works for me because of it's simplicity.  When the time comes for me to use it, I may add an embellishment or two... maybe a button especially if I decide to send it to a woman, or if the perfect manly embellishment appears on my desk. ... or maybe not.  Sometimes simple is exactly what is called for. 

Since I can't talk, I'm going to postpone a few things this weekend which means I'll get my prizes ready to mail. 

Oh, and my grandmother is doing well.  She's in re-hab and will be going home soon with a back brace. I'm not sure if I said on the blog, but they decided not to do surgery mainly because of her age. Although if you know my Grandma, you'd be convinced as I am that she is going to outlive all of us. 

I'm going to stop for now.  I'll update you on my exercising/weight-loss when I get that neighbor's card done and post it. 

It's been way tooo long...

It's almost Christmas! I'm a last minute crafter... I'm not sure that you'd be shocked by that admission... : ) Let's get real for a minute. It's more fun and artsy to craft for Christmas with your favorite Christmas music playing while you're wearing fuzzy slippers because your toes are actually cold and your favorite hoodie or sweatshirt is keeping you warm. It's a sense of urgency that motivates us to finish that project when get to a part that is fairly tedious. Only boring people make Christmas stuff in the summer and still know where it is by December. Am I right? Can I get a witness??

Today, I'm re-arranging flowers. I revived two arrangements that needed some new life breathed into them. Here is one of them. This vase entered my house as an unfinished vase from the craft store. I painted it with black craft paint and then and interference purple pearly powder mixed with the paint medium that Biblical Impressions used to sell. I like how the flowers (which were in a different container) look in it.

We are just trying to spruce up the family room as we decorate. You are going to notice a color theme in a second. I don't want you thinking this woman is absolutely so purple crazy that she's torturing those poor people with all that purple with even her Christmas decorating...

I want you to know the purple was all "Christmas Boy's" idea. [FYI, my oldest son, lovingly referred to as "The Boy" becomes "Christmas Boy" during the holidays.] Decorating had always been a chore for me. I do it because I like to make it festive, but it wasn't on my top ten list of favorite activities. On the other hand, a few years ago I was too busy and didn't get around to decorating fast enough for him (he was around 9) and he asked to do it. He not only put up the tree by himself, but he really got into adding decorations to other areas. including lights around his bedroom doorpost.

Last year I found some purple lights at Lowe's and decorated The Card Castle. Remember >this

This year, Christmas Boy chose to use those lights on the tree. And then he said he wanted a purple and silver and gold tree. ( gasp! I think I hyperventilated at this point) Who am I to stop Christmas Boy? I'm helping him by making the bows he wants at the top of the tree. The next few pictures are some of our decorating 'ingredients'. We are going to get busy here and I'll be back (eventually... let's be real here, I don't promise anymore! LOL ) with the pictures of the decorated house, OK?

On a personal note:

I've got a few cards to make this week for special birthdays. ( note the silence)

There is also a big blog hopping party next Saturday. I'm participating in Hero Arts' New Catalog Release Blog Hop next Saturday!! I'm pretty excited about it. Have you seen the previews this week on the blog? But for today, it's back to organizing and decorating. We are preparing to have a big family Christmas with my husband's family. I'm am soooooo ready for Christmas, but soooooooo not prepared. Christmas shopping?? I've only purchased one gift, and it was for me. Shhh don't tell my offspring.

The exercising is going well. I haven't been on a scale in a couple of weeks, but I need a belt all of a sudden. I'm off the meds except the one I take weekly for Lupus. It's all good. : ) I choose to look at life that way anyway. Be blessed as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ. I don't have to join a group or don a t-shirt with the slogan, Christ will always be my Christmas.

Thank You!

I owe soooo many people special notes of thanks. Hopefully, I'll be able to get caught up here in the next few weeks. I'm planning to take a bunch of cards with me on my trip so that I can sit and write notes when I have free time. Please forgive me for the delay, but I haven't forgotten you. :)

This one is one of the ones I made for Karen.

I'm headed back into the Card Castle to do some more creating!

Choosing joy! Jacki

You're My Lifesaver!

Hello?? Is anybody still out there? I'm sorry, I haven't been updating, I just haven't felt much like it. I did take pictures of 4 cards today and I have a couple more to do, so hopefully I'll have a few posts over the next few days.

This is a birthday/thank you card for someone who has been very supportive to me over the last few weeks. The Lifeguard stand is one of Hambo's new summer images. I thought it very appropriate for the the sentiments I need to express in this case.

I'm doing OK just busy-busy. This was camp week at my house. The Boy went to basketball camp out of state. The Girl is at youth camp. The Other Boy is in a day camp for gifted kids... which by the way starts every morning at 8:30!

I'm trying to do some assignments and projects ahead because I'm going to do some traveling in the next couple of weeks. I'm looking forward to getting my oldest daughter from college and then I'm going to see my momma. We are going to put lots of highway miles on the family van. I'll take many pictures and try to update you as I go. One of my highlights is a planned stop in on one of my favorite stamp companies-- but I'll give you those details later.

Stamps: Lifeguard stand and message (Hambo Stamps), Lines background and sea shell(The Angel Co.), shells ( Biblical Impressions)

Hey, guess what? I found a song called Purple! by Donnie McClurkin. You can hear it on YouTube by clicking >here<

When we praise Heaven responds with open arms...

Chorus

Just praise through your struggle and through your pain.

Just praise through the storm, yes, through the rain.

Beyond every dark cloud,

Beyond all fear and doubt,

There's a blessing of promise awaiting

In your praise.

Still choosing joy! Jacki Be blessed!! Thanks for checking in...

Between You and God

Wow, I could say so much about that title, but I don't think I will today. I'll just leave the focus on this card's message.

The moment I saw this stamp used in a card on the smARTworks blog, I knew I needed it. Once I received it, I thought what better advice to give a graduate. This is a relatively simple card for a very complicated young lady with simple taste. :) My friend Beth ( designer of my blog banner and artist extraordinaire) graduated from college a few weeks ago. (wait, are you surprised the card is late? LOL) Actually, this is the second card she's going to receive from me. I mailed a card in time for the actual graduation. I intended to bring another for the graduation party which she shared with her sister, Melissa this past weekend. Melissa is a high school graduate as of Saturday. Both of them are among the most wonderful people I've ever met. Ridiculously smart and hilariously funny! Congratulations, Beth.

Stamps: Mother Theresa Qoute (smARTworks), graduation caps (Biblical Impressions)

And this card is Melissa's. Congratulations Lali!

Stamps: Flourish Borders, and Happy Graduation (Hero Arts)

Gemstones ( Hero Arts) button, and tassel.

In The Birth of a Child...

Inside reads "the hope of the world."
Here is another with The hands from Heart and Soul.
...and a repeat of the how to in case you missed that the other day.

I stamped the hands(Heart and Soul Rubber Stamps) on cream colored card stock with brown ink. Using the reverse masking technique, I stamped the Baby Jesus (Biblical Impressions) inside the hands. I colored this with Prismacolor pencils and a little blending with the colorless blending pencil. The Names of Jesus background is a Eureka Stamp. The "In the birth of" is also a Biblical Impressions stamp the other line says " the hope of the world".
It's a little dark and cloudy here this morning but if we get a little sun, I'll take a better picture and replace it later today.



***************

Can you believe Christmas is next week? I'm still asleep at the wheel when it comes to Christmas cards and gifts. I'm not sure we are going to do too much this year. My daughter volunteered to do the Christmas newsletter because I'm not going to have time to do it without extreme stress. I can't wait to see what she's come up with. I'm still planning to finish my hand made cards if nothing else as a stress reliever. Two school Christmas parties in the next two days and then the kids are home for two weeks. I cut out stuff every year and it still seems to be too much. I'm really trying to be conscious of the real meaning of Christmas and not the stuff.
I hope you have a blessed (and not stressed) day as you prepare for Christmas celebrations.
I discovered this on thought provoking video clip on Facebook this morning and I thought I would share it. The Advent Conspiracy.

Amazing Love

When I first saw this image with the hands on Dina's blog very early in the year I knew I had to have it. I didn't know what I was going to do with it until Monday. This was something that came to me as I looked at the hands. The Baby Jesus stamp is one that I drew for Biblical Impressions a long time ago. Shh, don't tell anybody, but it's still my favorite baby Jesus stamp. ;)

I like to create non-traditional looking Christmas cards if you haven't noticed. This is my design for 2008. I'll probably only make a few--definitely less than ten. And then I'm going to try to get at least a few of them in the mail-- hopefully in time for this Christmas :)

How I did this~ I stamped the hands( Heart and Soul Rubber Stamps) on cream colored cardstock with brown ink. Using the reverse masking technique, I stamped the Baby Jesus (Biblical Impressions) inside the hands. I colored this with Prismacolor pencils and a little blending with the colorless blending pencil. Amazing and love are from 2 different Stampin Up sets. The background was done with a Hero Arts DesignBlock Stunning Snowflakes. I stamped that image on brown card stock with white dye ink and and then again in dark brown ink just slightly off from the first image. I really like how this turned out!
~~~~
Yesterday was a good Monday for me. So good in fact, that I made cards all day! I meant to photograph them so that I could show you, but I was in a such a good card making grove that before I knew it, it was too dark for pictures. But as you will see over the next couple of days, if my card making grove had a color, it was "brown". Every card is brown or at least has brown in it.


Before I go, let me show you my handsome boy!



I love it that they have to get dressed up for school on game day. I managed to remember to snap a couple of pictures before he left this morning.


This one must be his Game Face... either that or he was in the middle of chewing his breakfast. (I'll never tell which) He's 5' 3" -- just a couple inches shorter than me now. I wonder how long it will take him to grow into his hands and feet.

Be blessed! Jacki

P.S. In case you aren't following it, there is a new challenge on the Salt Blog, God is good! I've got a card in the works for that. God is good isn't he?

H is for Horses

H is for Horses. I have a lot of horse stamps that don't get used too often. It's been a while, maybe several years. That's why I decided to use it for my ABC challenge. I made all these cards plus many more for Biblical Impressions and/or for publication.

I debated whether or not to even post this card. After uploading it to the computer I decided that I'm not satisfied with it. I do like some things about it like the background. I used a textured card stock and a large background stamps with irregular lines.
For now, I need to move on, I have a lots of new things I want to do as always. Someday, if I redo this card, I'll show it to you.

I'm not sure where I'm going next with the ABC Challenges. I is for ?? J is for?? K ?? L?? any ideas?

Have a blessed day! Jacki

Beachy Best Friend and Exciting News

Do you ever get an idea for a card and no matter what you do, you can't make it work? And then there are the times you get a vision and the end product is even more perfect in real life than it was in my mind. This beach best friend card was one of the latter.

Stamps: You're the Best Friend (Embossing Arts), Sea Shells {background}(Rubber Stampede),Sea shell {under netting} (Rubber Stamp Plantation), Starfish ( Biblical Impressions) Card Stock: Craft(SU) Other: Prismacolor pencils, Magic Mesh, jeweled sun

Here is one of the 4 cards I submitted for the Paper Crafts Idol contest. I wasn't chosen in the top 20, so I can add my cards to my blog now. I'm only a little sad that I didn't make the top ten. I just figure that God has something else planned for me to do for the next 4 weeks. I'm really proud of these cards and I need to include them in this blog because it's like a creative journal for me. I thought about adding them in one post, but I think I'll add them gradually.

The exciting part of it is that I do know someone who made the top 20. Julie Korber from Out to Impress, one of my best blogging buddies. She is a very delightful lady, not to mention her obvious talent. We need to get behind her and vote for her each week. After the judges choose the top 20, we get to vote on the next four rounds. They are working on their first challenge right now.

While I'm talking about exciting things... Sarah (Sarosa) is celebrating 7,000 visits to her blog, Encouraging Impressions. Your encouraging comment on Sarah's blog will be your chance to win some cool stamps.

Father's Day Reflections

I bought this stamp to make a card for my dad three years ago. Unfortunately, before I could make the card that year, he passed away in May. I haven't been able to bring myself to use this stamp for anyone else since then, because it reminded me of my dad. Over the last few weeks I've been really missing my dad a lot. I guess this is the first year since he died that I've been able to have time to reflect around this time of year. His birthday is also in June so the first year we were still grieving when his birthday and Father's day came around. The following year, my first daughter, Jannelle, graduated from high school in June. We were soooo busy getting ready for her celebration. Later that same month, I was heavily involved in my niece's wedding. ( I made invitations, programs, jewelry etc...) There was no time to think two consecutive thoughts. Last year, there was another graduation and subsequent celebration for Jillana-- and then we moved.
I guess this year, because we don't have big BIG things going on, I had more time to think.

OK, moving on to why I bought this stamp( Eureka Stamps/Biblical Impressions) for him. One of the things I loved about him was his fascination with technology. All my life I remember him buying gadgets. When cassette tapes players hit the scene in the '70's, you'd better believe we had one when they first came out. The same goes for the VCR, CD player, fax machine etc... Everybody has these things now, but he was always cutting edge. He retired early ( in his 50's) because of a health condition that mimicked arthritis. He was a musician who could no longer play his keyboard because of the condition of his hands. When he discovered a computer program that would allow him to write music again, he spent hours on the computer arranging and writing music. He sent me emails and forwards and links --all the time! Because of his limited mobility in the end, he spent a lot of time online-- connecting with family and friends and purchasing supplies, as a matter of necessity, not just convenience like I do. Soooo, that's why this stamp reminded me of him.
This is a picture of him holding me when I was close to 2 years old.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Our Father's Day celebration here yesterday was a lot of fun. My husband was really pumped this year. He had done some major cute hinting (--like I did with the Cricut last Christmas), so he was really excited when he received exactly what he asked for.


The picture is so dark because we opened gifts last night after Jannelle came home from work because he wanted all his babies to be present. You can see the card I made for him back in February on the table beside him.
Julie made him his favorite coconut cake.


It was a special day.

Owl Happy Graduation!

Here is a simple little card that I made "just because" and now I realize that I need it... and it's in the right colors! I couldn't have planned that better.

Stamps: graduation owl (Biblical Impressions/Eureka Stamps), Graduation print (Hero Arts)

I just realized how I can put a ribbon on my scroll at the bottom.

Celebrate the Graduate

Stamps: Cap and leaves (Biblical Impressions), Celebrate/ Inspiring Messages ( Hero Arts) Paper: Den Belle (Chatterbox)

I also used color pencils (of course) and hand stitched the border with Perle Cotton.
Finished card is 8 1/2" x 4"

I don't have too many graduations this year. Thank goodness we don't have one at our house. My oldest daughters graduated back to back in 2006 and 2007. I have a couple more years until the next one.
This card is for a beautiful young lady who was home schooled. Since I didn't have school colors to worry about, I took the liberty to use some paper I love. I hand stitched this border because I'm afraid of my sewing machine. Seriously I just haven't played with the new machine enough to get the hang of it. The machine I had for years( since college) finally died on me. It was like an old friend whose hand I had to hold each time I tried to use it. When it didn't act right (which was every time) I knew what to do to make it right. This new one has too much computerizing going on. That's a word right? Anyway, I don't mind doing the hand stitching and I think I like the heavier cotton vs the regular thread. The only thing I need now is a guide to poke the holes evenly.

As you can see I didn't use the light studio. I tried it, and I wasn't happy. I'm really not a gadget person as you can see... No that's not true. I have a lot of gadgets. I guess it just takes me a while to get them figured out. Once I do, I love them. I don't have the light studio figured out yet. What I had been doing involved a window, afternoon sun, and a sheer curtain. I think I'm going to go back to that for now. Unfortunately, I'm limited to a small window of time to get the optimum results. I'll talk more about the light studio as I learn more. BUT, if you didn't get out to get one last week, don't stress about it. If I'm going to do this light box thing, I'm going to get a really nice one or make a nice one -- with better lights. Actually I need to see if my husband still has his big studio lights from waaaay back when he used to do a lot of photography.

Enough rambling for one day. I'll let you know more later about the "light studio".

By the way, as I was taking the picture this morning, I had some interference...


at first he tried to pretend I wasn't talking to him when I said "MOVE!"


have a blessed day! Jacki

Happy Graduation!

I made this card for John. Remember me saying that I needed a graduation card for an old man (wink). I managed to make this card w/o flowers or ribbon. I love buttons! Actually my family went to the graduation party with another card, because this card hid from me when I went to finish it. They had to leave so I had to give them a new card to take.(I'm such a dork) Anyway, that just means John will receive 2 cards from the Jones 7. So John, again congratulations on your graduation from college!

The graduation horse is Biblical Impressions/Eureka Stamps. All the words are Hero Arts anytime messages ,inspiring messages, you deserve the best, from the heart greetings, graduation print. Buttons( Bazzill) Horse image was colored with Prismacolor pencils.

Wish You Were Here!

Here is a stamp I challenged myself to use. (You'll hear that statement again and again.) It was a part of a full sheet I purchased years ago from Biblical Impressions. This was drawn by the same artist who drew the puppies ( >here is the post where I talked about it in case you want to follow the links<)
I didn't have a plan, but I was determined to use this image I'd colored. But for what? Why would I send someone a card with this image? I searched thru my stamps and came up with a couple of possiblities... wish you were here and a couple of missing you stamps. I guess if I was clever enough I could have computer generated something funny. But, I'm not that kind of clever and I was trying to use stamps I have. So obviously I settled on this one ( Hambo Stamps). So, there you have it. I successfully completed my own challenge and used a stamp I've had for 7 or more years. I'm not sure exactly when it was purchased, but I do remember which house I lived in and that I colored it right after I took a color pencil class in 2001 so I know it was sometime in 2001. I also remember using it once on the envelope when I sent another card to Biblical Impressions, but I've never actually had a card idea for it.
Now that it's done, who will I send this to? Will it stay in my card stash forever? Will it go to the first person to ask for it? Or will I send it to my daughter? Stay tuned for more nonsense like this...

This post is being edited to clear up some confusing statements. I wrote this before 8 am on a Saturday morning. Hmm after reading this again, I'm confused. I think the point I was trying to make was although I've never used it on a card, I do remember coloring it in 2001. I colored this particular one just the other day.

Mailbox in Red

"The boy" forgot to give the bus driver her Christmas gift. Of course, I sent it in on the last day before Christmas break so there were no second chances. I didn't want to give her an ornament and Christmas music in January so I decided to give her a Valentine's treat. Instead of working at the last minute as I usually do, I was determined to give this to her no later than today. Notice that I said I was going to give it to her. After the fiasco this morning with the Card Castle ceiling, I didn't think I would finish in time, but I made it with about 5 minutes to spare. She is a very sweet lady and I appreciate how good she does her job.

Unfortunately, I didn't have time to do more for her, but I made this mailbox and card for her.
The Hero Arts cupcakes are stamped on the red and white splatter paper and colored in markers on the box. The cupcake is paper pieced on the card. I added glitter to the hearts on each cupcake.

This is a very small gift card sized card ( 2 3/4 x 3 3/4).
The boys are by Penny Black and colored in Prismacolors. The "from both of us" is Biblical Impressions.
I used Real Red Dye ink for both. The Boys were stamped in Walnut Stain Distress ink.




Not that there would be a postage stamp in the mailbox flag, but I used the Stamp Paper edgers and a square punch to make a faux stamp for the flag on this one.

I didn't decorate my candy inside. I bought the ones with the seasonal wrappers. If I were on the receiving end, I wouldn't want to mess up all the prettiness by eating the candy...ok, I would mess up the prettiness, and I would still eat the candy, but I'd feel bad that I messed up the pretty. This way I saved her all the guilt. Isn't that nice of me??




I used the Copic colorless blender to smooth out the pencil lines. I normally use the colorless blender pencil, but I was in a hurry and this goes much faster. You can still see a little of the texture, but it gives it a nice smoothness. The first picture was just coloring and layering colors. I didn't have a brown for their skin down here when I colored it, so I added it just before I blended, but after I took the first picture. You can mainly see the difference in the blue jeans and the red shirt. The lighting was a little different too. Anyway, I love the Copic colorless blender to use with the pencils, but I took back the rest of the markers-- both the Copics and the Prismacolors. I like them ok, but I really do already have -ahem- several markers... no several sets of markers ...actually several hundrends of dollars worth of markers-- that I don't often use. If I started with the expensive ones, I would have to practice a lot and spend a lot of money getting all the colors. I was dying to try it and now I'm over it. I promised my pencils that I wouldn't abandon them. There I go doing another nice thing today.

ETA: I first learned that the Copic Colorless Blender would blend color pencils on another blog Talk to the Ham. I assumed that it would work as good as the Prismacolor marker. It's been several years since I had a Prismacolor Marker blender so I kinda forgot that it didn't work too well. I wanted to try the Copic marker to see how that compares.
I finally got around to trying it and it works great for quick blending. Actually I've played with it just enough to know I liked it and it's quicker than using the colorless blender pencil. I haven't done the water color look, although based on what I did, I'm sure it will work. I don't know how much the refill for the Copic blender marker costs. That's something I'll have to look into. I do know that this could be considered expensive compared to the Gamsol per ounce. But if you are like me you have a room full of tools and supplies for a technique that you may only use once a year, getting the marker vs the OMS and blending stumps is an option. If you are Sue Nelson, and you go thru a gallon of OMS a week, obviously that would be a cheaper way to go.
So far, I like the control with the marker vs the blending stumps. I'm not a big fan of the OMS technique, but to be honest, I didn't practice enough with the blending stumps to really get the hang of it. I'll keep you posted as I practice more.

I need to get back to my dusting and cleaning. Have a blessed weekend!!!

Salt Challenges

Salt Faith Challenges Blog

I had great intentions of doing these challenges on time.
This first one was created for the John 3:16 challenge.



And the next one is the "For where your Treasure is,there your Heart will also be" Challenge.

My "Treasure" Bookmark. I didn't think I would ever send this as a card to anyone, so I'll made a bookmark. But whose to say, I can't give them a bookmark if the need arrises??

Choosing JOY!

"Busy day"

"Crazy day"

"Whatever can go wrong will go wrong day"

Take your pick, I've had them this week.

Let's see, my printer is retarded and probably needs to go to printer heaven. This isn't the regular wonderful-but-can-be-replaced for $50 printer. No this is the Scanner-Copier-Printer Fax-that-I can't-live-without-printer. Or course, I only have about $70 worth of ink here in the house for this machine. This is ink that isn't in the box so I can't return it.

And then there's the car, the broken one. Fixing it will cost more than it's worth. So we need to go car shopping. sigh... For that we need money in the budget, right? Either I'm going to have to step up my hours at Michaels, or I won't be buying any stamping supplies for a while. What's going to happen to the economy if I stop buying stamps??

I won't go on with the list, because I'm choosing JOY. I know God's already got it figured out, we just need to trust him and get with His program. Philippians 4:19 says "And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus". So if the Bible is true, and of course I believe it is, God's already got it covered, right?

Since the kids are back in school, I've been taking my hubby to work every day. That's approximately three hours total on the road every day there and back twice. I don't have an extra three hours a day so I've asked God to help me use that time effectively. The good news is when he's in the car with me, my husband and I get to talk. I can't remember when we've had 45 uninterrupted minute blocks of times to talk to each other-- that's a positive thing that has come from this situation. Choosing JOY. When he isn't in the car, I can spend the time meditating on the Biblical truths I hear in the songs on the Christian radio, or I can pray. again, I'm choosing JOY.

Choosing to be joyful, doesn't mean pretend the problems aren't there. It's a choice to look at the problems from God's perspective and learn what I can from the situation. My expectations are from God, not my circumstances.

About the card: This card started out as a swap for someone who loves animals. In line with my thought to use what I have, I chose these seldom-used stamps. I bought a sheet of puppy stamps by Ron Wheeler years ago from Biblical Impressions. They don't carry this artist's stamps anymore. Anyway there were many--at least 20 puppies with different expressions on this one sheet of stamps. I used some of them on two occasions. Once to make a card for a teacher at the kids school when her dog got sick back in 2000. The only other time was in 2005 when I was making samples for BI I did a scrapbook page. The puppies wanted to come out to play!

After I stamped the front of this card I realized that I didn't have an appropriate stamps to go with it so I computer generated the words. I also used several punches to put the finishing touches. The puppy paws in the background are by The Angel Company.

I need to get on with my long "to do" list. Thanks for checking in on me--be blessed and choose joy!

a Wonderful Gift to me.

Finished Card size: 5.5"x 4.25"
Stamps: Snowman( Biblical Impressions), Your friendship (part of a cube by Stampendous)
Card Stock: Real Red(SU) Shimmery White ? (I got this from Marco Paper, but I cannot find the name of it.)
Ink: Brilliance Graphite Black (Tsukenko),
Coloring Medium: Prismacolor Pencils
Other: Coluzzle, Fiskars Snowflakes texture plate.

I love my friends!

Even More Grapes

And now, back to our regularly scheduled programing. Here is my "grapes" card for today!


Finished Card size: 5.5"x 4.25"
Stamps: Grapes ( The Angel Company) Psalms verse (Biblical Impressions),
Pattern Paper:
Ink: Brilliance Graphite Black and Royal Purple (Tsukenko),
Coloring Medium: Prismacolor Pencils
Other: Ribbon, Tag punch(SU)

I stamped and colored two images. The first one was made into a tag using the Tag corner punch(SU) and the other was cut out and popped out with a Pop dot. I do love the ribbon that I used. It's really soft. Most of the other ribbon I have I bought from the big discount stores and it's not as soft and easy to work with. Trish gave it to me as a part of a RAK so I'll need to check with her to see where I can get more.

I think this is my favorite of all the grapes stamps I have and this is one of my favorite verses of scripture so I'm going to conclude that this is my favorite grapes card this week.

I'll be busy with a lot of things for the rest of the day. I've got a lot of cards to mail out... and lots of errands.. And then there's the Grinch play at the high school... I need to take a picture of my daughter in her costume so that you can see how that sketch turned out. I finally figured out that sewing machine, so it's all good! I need to get a few more needles, but I'm excited that I'll finally be able to sew on my cards. And to think this machine has been in my closet for 2 years!!! OH if there were just more hours in a day... and I didn't waste so many on this computer! Have a blessed day!