My Big News!

Hello everyone! I'm so excited to finally be able to announce some news that I've been keeping hush hush for a little while now.

Kelley, the owner of Our Daily Bread designs has asked me to come back as a full Design Team member! I am sooooo excited! Those of you who know me know that I love Christian themed and Scripture cards, so Our Daily Bread is a perfect fit for me. I TRULY LOVE these stamps and can't wait to get my fingers inky with the new sets!

The news doesn't stop there! She also asked me to step in as Design Team Coordinator, as Judy Rozema needed to step down to spend more time with family. She has done an awesome job at the helm and I know I have big shoes to fill in that position. I hope and pray I can be an asset to Kelley and the whole awesome Design Team of Our Daily Bread. They are truly among the most talented people I know and I am humbled and honored to be included in their number!

Thank you Kelley for this opportunity! I'm excited to jump in and get to work!

This month, the Design Team of Our Daily Bread is having a Design Team Challenge, and you are invited! It's called Three for Thee, and to find out all about it, check the Our Daily Bread Blog on Sept. 3! Just a little hint.... there will be PRIZES you won't want to miss, so see you on Sept 3!

Thanks for stopping by and reading my big news! Have a blessed weekend!

Vintage Promise of God

Hello everyone! Hope you are having an awesome Thursday!

Today's Ways to Use it Challenge on SCS was to do Vintage. I don't do vintage too much but I had fun doing this! I used three different sets from Our Daily Bread designs. The wonderful promise is from the Aug. released set "Jesus". What a comfort there is in these words of our Lord! The bird and flowers are from "Sing to the Lord", and the hymn is "Amazing Grace Hymn".

I started with a base of Weathered Thyme by Lasting Imressions. I layered with GPW which I heavily sponged with Tim Holtz Tea Dye and then the designer paper is "The First Blush" by Studio D. I cut a small strip of floral dp and used my EK Success edge punch, layered that under the hymn which I distressed in a variety of ways. I stamped it on GPW with Sahara Sand, then I crumpled it all up and started sponging, tearing and rolling corners. The TH Distress Inks (also found at the ODBD Store) I used are Tea Dye, Antique Linen and Black Soot.

My laser cut design is actually cut out of a wedding favor box and sponged. The sentiment is stamped in Archival Jet Black because I wanted it to really stand out against all the sponging I planned to do. I used the same colors of TH ink but also added Tattered Rose lines to simulate folds. The bird and flowers were heat embossed with Antique God EP. I wasn't real happy about how this particular ep embossed, but it does have an "old" effect so I went with it. I cut the bird off the branch to mount him on the sentiment and then added the flowers in where I wanted them. I tried something new on the bird and flowers.... after embossing I colored them by sponging them with TH Distress Inks as well... quick and easy... again, not sure of the result but I enjoyed how quickly it went! The bird and sentiment are popped up on dimensionals. The corner piece on the top right is a Sizzix die cut, cut from a scrap of copper cs and run through the Big Shot with the CB Textile embossing folder for texture.

Thanks for taking a peek today!

Snow Cream MMSC16

Hello everyone! It's so good to be back and not driving! Our trip to NY went very well but just too many miles for one weekend! One really big bright spot was that I got to meet Chris Olsen for coffee and she is just the sweetest! I wish we lived closer... I know we'd be best of friends!

Anyway... today I'm trying to catch up. I don't usually try to combine too many challenges but this one is for three. I used the Midnight Madness Sketch (16)... and they are ALWAYS great! I also used today's Color Challenge on SCS. My good friend Peggy was filling in and chose Real Red, Kraft and Chocolate Chip. What a great combo! This also was for last Friday's Twisted Sister challenge to make a humorous Christmas Card. I don't have many humorous Christmas images but I thought this one from Plum Purdy was cute and on the inside it says: "Snow Cream". :)

The image is stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black, Colored with Copics:
E00,E31, E53, E29, E74
G24, YG63, YG03
R14, R29
YR68, YR65
BG10 (for the halo)

The base is Papertrey Dark Chocolate. I have to get more of this yummy paper! It's so heavy and a great color! The matting is SU! Kraft, then I used Neenah White and SU! Dsp from a Hostess Pack last year. I used a QuicKutz die cut corner piece which I ran through the Big Shot with the textile folder, and the white layer is embossed with the Sizzix Snowflake EF. My snowflakes are punched with a Martha Stewart punch and the little scrolly elements are a QuicKutz die cut frame (Hobby Lobby) cut out of vellum. I then cut out the scrolls from the circular cut out and covered them with Stickles. The snowflakes and the snowman are also covered with Stickles in Frosted Lace.

I can't for the life of me get a good photo of this card that both shows the glitter and does not have shadows... sorry about that! Maybe later but right now I'm in a rush.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a great evening!

MMSC15 Fall is almost here!

Hello everyone!
Today I made a card for two challenges: MMSC14 and also Copic Color Challenge #27. I always love Priscilla's sketches, and today was no exception! This image is by Stampendous. I stamped it with Memento Tuxedo Black and colored it with Copic Markers. I then sponged T Holtz distress inks in Tea Dye and Scattered Straw over the Neenah White CS I had stamped the image on. I used the edge of my sponge to try to create lines here and there to look like a "sanded" background. The card base is Papertrey Dark Chocolate, then the matting is Bazzill Basics and the designer paper is BoBunny. I used SU! Hemp twine and little bronze eyelets for that element of the sketch. I added Stickles but unfortunately you can't see the sparkle in this photo.

The colors of Copics I used are: N2, YG95, YG93, YG91, YG03, Y11, Y15, Y17, YR65, YR68, E25, E27, E29, E55.

I hope you are having a great Wednesday.

Two Blog Awards to pass along!

Hello everyone!
Today I am posting two special awards that were given to me. The first one comes from Lisa Lara. She is such an inspiration to me, and I am so honored to be named! Thank you Lisa!

The rules for this award are that I must list 5 things I love to do, and then pass it along to five other people.

I have many things I love to do, but here is a list of some of my favorites.

1. I love to read God's Word and talking to Him in prayer. In a world so dark, there is great comfort in knowing that He is still in control, and has won the victory! I have fibromyalgia and one of the things I deal with quite often is the inability to sleep. Those quiet night hours are wonderful times to talk to Him!

2. Spending time with my hubby and family. My hubby and I just celebrated our 38th anniversary and guess what? We still love each other! We love taking drives to pretty places, exploring new places we have never seen before, and returning to some of our favorite spots. We love the shore (what Maniac doesn't?) LOL. Of course I absolutely love it when my "kids" are here! We just have so much fun doing everything together: swimming, boating, fishing, doing crafts and playing games or doing puzzles... it doesn't matter what... just spending time together!

3. I love to do crafts, most especially paper crafts! I also love quilting and various needle work, though lately it seems like paper crafts have taken over!

4. I love to do Soduko puzzles. My hubby got me started on them, and it's lots of fun! I figure as we get older it's a good thing to keep the mind challenged a little bit. LOL!

5. I have recently been playing around with digital images and trying to make blog backgrounds. I never would have thought there would be so much fun in that, but I do love learning how to manipulate images in Adobe Elements and come up with a background that actually fit's my wide screen! LOL! My present bg is my first ever one, but I'm working on some fall ones too and it's really an enjoyable passtime!

I am passing this along to five special people who inspire me:

Diane
PeggySue
Crystal
Chris
Linda



The second award comes from Dottie.

You are so sweet Dottie! Thanks so much!
To pick up the Circle of Friends Blog Award :

Cut and paste the award logo and use it on your own blog. Nominate at least five other bloggers you feel have become part of your circle of friends. Link to your nominees , within your blog post and include these instructions on how to pick up the award on your blog post. To show your appreciation to the person who gave you the award, link back to their blog. Finally, comment on the recipents blogs to let them know they've received the award.

I have made many new friends through blogging, and many of those friends are from my bloggers group, Ocean's 11. It's amazing how connected we can come to feel through reading each other's posts, and the comments left on our own! These ladies all inspire me and I consider them friends.

My five choices for this award:

Siobhan
Stephanie
Holly
Laura
Dell

Anniversary Card: The Nubble Light

Hello everyone!

Please don't forget the blog candy pinned to the top of my page! If you came via reader, just click on my banner!

Today is my 38th Anniversary, and I made this card for my hubby. My daughter had given this stamp to me for Mothers Day and I just love it but had not yet had a chance to use it. This was the time! We still call Maine "home", although we've been gone for a number of years now, but we all just loved it there. Not far from where we lived was the Nubble Light House in York, ME. I think this image looks just like it so I called it that. It was one of our great joys to drive the coast trying to see all the light houses in the state. I knew my hubby would love it, so I used the SCS Sketch from this week to put this together. On the inside is a nice Anniversary sentiment, but I left the outside plain so the image would take center stage. It is watercolored with markers, and then sponged with TH Distress Ink in Linen. The DP is K&Co. I did add a bit of pearl white paint T Holtz) to the front of the house and light to give the effect of the sun shining off them. I added little touches of the pearl white paint to the waves as well for a little depth and shimmer. The anchor charm is from Clear Dollar Store.

Thanks so much for looking and have a blessed weekend!

MMSC14 Garden Window

Hello everyone! Here is the card I made for the Midnight Madness Sketch 14. Another great sketch girls! I used one of the newly released stamps from Our Daily Bread designs called Happy Birthday. It's such a pretty set and so fun to color!

This card is 5 x 7". I used an embossing template which I got from my local stamp store. It is a Mariannne Design Anja Style Dry Embossing Template. I put it right up against two sizes of Nesties Squares and embossed, then cut out by hand. I put the window topper on a light box to emboss it a little more, as running it through the big shot gave a light impression but not enough. I used Bazzill Textured Green and Pink for my card base and mat. The vine element running horizontally across is an embossed vellum scrap. For the lower horizontal element I used some pretty white lace and sheer pink to green ribbon. The image itself is stamped on Neenah CS with Memento Tuxedo Black and colored with Copics. I added some gem stones and stickles, and used my CB die cuts for the upper corners. The image panel is on dimensionals and then I lifted the butterfly and three of the flowers on dimensionals too.

The MMSC is such a fun sketch! Come join us!!

Now here's a picture I took of my helper I have to work around every day.... this is Ricky, and he's the reason my signature on SCS says "no project is complete without at least one cat hair"! He loves to push my pencils on the floor (which is what he's doing here), and he carries my blending stumps all over the house. My ribbons have to either be taped up on a roll or put away in a closet... too much temptation for him to endure! Oh but he's so sweet... you just have to love him! All 16 1/2 pounds of him! As you can see, he takes up most of my work space! LOL! Acutally, after letting him play a little while I carry him to the day bed in this room, and I have a blanket there that's his... and I put him on that and he'll sleep the rest of the time I'm working. But he has to have his play time first.

"I'll be With You Always"

Hello everyone! I hope you have had a wonderful Sunday!

Today I got out the newly released set from Our Daily Bread designs called Jesus. There are several quotes from Our Lord in this set, and this image of Jesus. I have to admit to you that I had trouble doing any artwork involving an image of our Lord, but this one is so tastefully done and I wanted to try superimposing a cross so this is what I came up with. The image itself is stamped with Sahara Sand on Sahara Sand Card Stock, then I used the cross image from SU! Refuge and Strength. I stamped that in VersaMark, then rubbed Matalllic Rub On in Colonial over it. For the frame I used a very detailed embossing template, embossed it on basic black cs, then sponged on the same metallic rub on. I also added just a touch of green metallic to the frame to pop it a little more. I wanted a more aged effect so I rubbed off most of the metallic, then sponged all around my frame, starting off the page and working inward. I stamped the verse, which is from Matt 28:20 (I had to cut the reference off to fit it in my Nestablity Tag Trio element) in Archival Jet Black onto Vellum, then I rubbed the same Metallic around the edges of the vellum. I felt it needed more to stand out against the frame so I hand cut a matting for it from Sahara Sand, and again rubbed the edges with the Metallic. I matted my embossed frame on Sahara Sand, then onto Basic Black. This card is 5 x 7. The ribbon is a yummy double sided satin that's gold on one side and this champagne color on the other. This side was a perfect match for the Metallic I used, as I would call that a cross between gold and silver. I made some slight score lines in the corners to give a mitered look to the black frame. That's about it. I had my Christian music playing in the background as I made this and I have to tell you I just enjoyed talking to the Lord the whole time I was working on this!

I realized yesterday that many of you are coming here on a link to my "new posts", which does not show you the top post on my front page... my blog candy. Please click on my Title to load that post or just follow the link I just made for you so you can be entered in the giveaway!

Thank you for stopping by today and I hope you have a blessed week!

Some More Blog Candy!

Steph over at Where'd All My Money Go?! has some new Blog Candy to offer! She's celebrating some great blogging milestones. Be sure to check it out!

Blog Candy!

This Candy is Now Closed! I will be announcing the winner on Monday! Thanks for entering and good luck!

Please see Post on Sept. 27 for the winner!!!




Hello everyone! For those of you who read Women to Women you know that I recently wrote a devotional "Who Do You Follow". In that devotional I drew an analogy between the concept of "following" someone on their blog or Twitter, etc. and the words of Jesus when He said "Follow Me". I also mentioned the idea of blog candy, and how often people who are giving away a gift will ask you to "tell others" about their candy. I drew the paralell to Jesus when He said to his disciples "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men". Networking is the best way to get information, and to share information! As an illustration of my devotional thoughts, I decided to give some BLOG CANDY myself!


This candy will remain open until Sept. 25. Each person who qualifies for the drawing will have their name put on a slip of paper, and on Sept. 26, since that's my husband's birthday, he will draw a name. The candy is open to everyone. This is a list of what one blessed person will win:


New Box of EK Success Fibers
Tube of gem stones
Several new ribbons
New Fiskars Decorative Scissors
New Fabric Designer Brads by Spare Parts
2 Studio G clear acrylic mini Stamp Sets
1 Sheet Inkadinkado Christmas Stamps
1 New Cuttlebug Embossing Folder: Happy Birthday
1 New Pack of the newly released BasicGrey 6 x 6 "June Bug" Paper
48 NEW PRISMACOLOR PENCILS! (These are the ones you use with Gamsol for a fantastic look!)


Of course, my candy cannot even compare to the gift Jesus offered to us... His gift was the free gift of forgiveness of sin, salvation and eternal life to all who will place their trust in Him. Following Him is our joy when we know Him!


What are the requirements to be eligeable to win this candy?

~ I'd love to have you follow my blog, but it isn't a requirement.
~ I'd love to have you follow Women to Women and I hope you will do so... it might just serve as a balm for your soul! If you feel you would enjoy it, please do!


The requirements to be eligable to win are:

1. Post a link to this candy on your blog and make a comment back to me here with a link to it. If you don't have a blog, leave me a comment on how you will tell others about this give away.


2. For a second chance to win, please read my devotional or any other one- (new ones are posted once a week) and come back here and leave me a comment about what you liked about what you read.


That's it! Real simple!


Be sure to check back here on Sept. 27 when I will announce the winner!

Beyond all Blessings Blessed

Hello everyone!
I got to play a little this morning and managed to get a few challenges into one hurried card. The limited supply challenge on SCS today was to use only food related images AND colors. Well.... that proved the be the challenge! I had to think a bit... but looking at all the SU! colors, it seemed the most colors that were food related were in the Earth Tones family, so that led me to fall images, and I thought this Our Daily Bread designs set would be perfect. I also made this card for a little group of friends who do a weekly challenge, and today's was to case a card of Deb's. I cased this card: Country Church. I used her basic layout but did add a layer and a couple of metal doo dads which made it qualify for Flourishes Timeless Tues. Challenge (FTTC27) to use metal in some way. I also added a sentiment panel.

I stamped the image onto water color paper and watercolored with the following Markers and/or inks: Pumkin Pie, Creamy Caramel, So Saffron, chocolate Chip, Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Apricot Appeal, Cranberry Crisp, Adirondak Latte, Pesto, Butterscotch and Ginger. Whew!!! I think I kept all the rules! LOL!

The tiny sentiment on this is from the Rubber Stamp Tapestry Co. I cut my panels with Nestabilities Lg. Deckled Rectangles, used a Chocolate ribbon and Chocolate CS from Papertrey. The texture is a Sizzix embossing folder. There are Stickles on the flowers and some white highlights made with a Signo Gel Pen, but those things never seem to show up in a photo.

This was a real rushed card but I'm so glad I got to play a bit! I hope you have a blessed day and a totally terrific weekend! Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to have a look at my blog candy!

Simon Says Stamp Blog!: Chatter From CHA Orlando Summer 2009 & $100 in new products Giveaway!

Simon Says Stamp Blog!: Chatter From CHA Orlando Summer 2009 & $100 in new products Giveaway!

Here's a heads up on another great giveaway being offered!


Simon Says Stamp has graciously offered to be a sponsor of the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge and has donated a $50 voucher to their store to the lucky winner of their August sketch challenges. Not only have they done that for the MMSC group, but now, they are offering an unbelieveable blog candy! $100.00 in CHA products to a lucky winner if you enter by August 14th! Make sure you make a stop over there to check out the details at the Simon Says Stamp blog for your chance at this very generous prize!

Midnight Madness Month end Drawing #1

MMSC13 Rose in the Ferns

Hello everyone! Happy hump day! I hope your week is going well!

I made this card for the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge. I did tweak it just a bit. I made my card square and made it a 9 patch. I love Priscilla's sketches.... they are a step up and I love them! If you haven't played along, now's the time! If you check out and play her sketches and tell me so that I can tell her that you came from my recomendation, I'll get entered into a drawing for a prize! Here is the info. straight from the MM site:

“Refer your Friends for Freebies” Now sticking to our FRIENDLY theme this week, the Midnight Madness Sketch challenge has an added treat for you. We will be starting the “Refer your Friends for Freebies” this week and this is how it works….. for every "Brand NEW" participating friend you refer to our challenges, you will get an extra entry in our weekly bonus drawings through the end of August. As an added bonus, if three of your referrals enter our sketch challenge during the same week, I will mail you a special gift from Stampin Up. And the person who refers the most new friends by August 31st will Win a "Stampin Up" Grab bag of products worth over $100. Your friends can only be a “Brand NEW” friend once even though we welcome them to stay and play as often as they want and that person could then join in by referring new friends too. All you have to do is leave a comment stating your friend has entered the challenge, who they are and how you know them. Then email me with your address if three NEW friends enter in the same week. And last, email me by Sept 1st a list of referred friends and your grand total of participating friends for the $100 product prize. In the event of a tie, we will have a drawing. So now is the time to get in touch with all those friends of yours, catch up and invite them to play with us!


I finally got to use my SU! Fifth Ave. set for the first time since I bought it... several months ago! I embossed my rose image on a semi-glossy paper from Staples... don't know the name of it but it comes in big sheets for office use. I love it! It's not a full gloss but just a little sheen. I used Ranger Super fine detail gold embossing powder. I watercolored the image with Twinkling H2Os with the addtion of just a tad of Pink Pirouette and Ridinghood Red ink.

My Dsp is from K&Co: Madeline Mat Pad... one of my favorites!

The card base is Mellow Moss, layered with The Paper Co. brushed gold, then pretty in pink and then the dsp.

I cut the corners are Cuttlebug die cuts and cut from the same pack, and the ferns are Nestabilities "Fern Foliage" cut, sponged with Old Olive and then painted with Green Olive Shimmerz. The gold scrolly swirls are Nestabilities Flourish Accents. The butterflies are Martha Stewart Punches, painted in Shimmerz Angel Wings and adorned with a little bling.

Everything is popped up on dimensionals, and the center of the rose is on double dimensionals so I could curl the outter petals back. IRL it almost looks like I used paper tole, but I didn't. I love how this one came out! Hope you do too!

Thanks for looking and

Mojo 98 Rotating Birthday Card

Hello friends! Sorry it's been a few days since my last post! I've had quite the time since I last posted! Thursday my Computer crashed and after finding out what it would cost to have it fixed I decided to buy a new inexpensive laptop. Well.... loading all my programs and photos took forever!!! I still don't have everything but I have given up on getting more! I have the most needed things. My photos were backed up on sticks, thankfully, but when I imported them they all went into their own single little folders.... and we're talking THOUSANDS of photos! I could not figure out how to move multiple ones at a time! When I held down control plus selected the photos.... they all copied themselves! LOL! Talk about something to laugh about when this is all settled down! Anyhoo... I dragged them one by one into files and now I have an organized filing system again but I only did the most recent ones. I had way too many to do that way! Sat. evening after working on that all day I wanted to get outside for a bit and went to pick some veggies and got stung by a bee. Now that was not such a big deal but my pinkie is still twice the size of my other fingers... it's so fat you can't see a knuckle! LOL! Well... they say things come in threes and for me, the third thing was the hardest. Sun. morning I woke up with a bad migrane and almost stayed home but wanted to get to Church so I got myself in the shower, got ready to go and just before leaving I felt a roughness on my ring finger... you got it.... my diamond that I have had on my finger since my hubby proposed almost 4o years ago... had fallen out of the setting! So... after Church Sun. we both turned the house upside down! We went through garbage, cleaned floors, unmade the bed and checked there, and my hubby even opened the traps under the sinks. The shower is a bit different and he checked it but there isn't a typical trap there and now I'm just convinced that's where it is. Anyway.... to this point I have not found it. I know it's just a "thing", but it was precious to me. My hubby and I were in College when we got married, so money was tight and he gave me a beautiful diamond when we got engaged. I feel so badly about losing it. I'm still praying we might find it. I don't dare throw out or vacuum anything!

Here are a couple lessons I learned from this weekend's events!
1. Back up ALL your files often!
2. Have your jewelry settings checked often! I had had it done but apparently all this work we've done here has been hard on my rings.

OK... now on to my card! I had gotten a template for this rotating card at a craft show and wanted to try it out. When I saw the Mojo sketch for this week I knew I had to try it today.

I used a 2" circle stamper from JustRite and inserted the letters to fit the circle. If you spin the circle around it says "Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you dear friend". The template for the little square that the circle sits in is made for a 3" circle, which I didn't have so I adjusted mine to work, but the original template is by CleverCutts and was purchased from Art Gone Wild. My Dsp is DCWV "Sweet" Glitter Stack. I used a base of white, added my pink glittered dsp, and the white edge punched layer behind the little square is actually from a box wedding kit by EK Success that I got on clearance at Micheal's!

To make the circle sentiment, I stamped on GPW with Baja Blue, cut with a Nestie circle, then sponged around that and added a Pink Pirouette sponged scalloped circle. I drew out my template using a square Nestie as a template for the square size I would need, and scored the fold lines. I used a 3/4" circle punch to cut out a little thumb hole so you can spin the sentiment. I decided that to really fit the Mojo Sketch I needed to add an outside circle to my square so I cut another scalloped nestie and cut it on the inside with the straight edge one and sponged it with the Pink Pirouette. If I were to do it again, I'd not do scalloped circles on the inside and outside because depending on where you spin the sentiment to, the scallops may or may not line up right. Oh well... another lesson learned!

I punched a hole through all the layers and inserted my brad, using a little shimmery sponged flower behind that that I got from Clear Dollar Stamps. White ribbon completes the card. I'm glad I took the time today to play a little... I needed the card therapy!

Have a blessed week!