Make a Difference

A new box of goodies sits on the dining room table. Stampin’ UP! released a new catalog the first of January, and though it’s gorgeous it took me a few days to place my initial order. Last night I cut some rubber and put my mind to go SUO (Stampin’ UP! Only) on my sketch-take for Beate’s challenge. This set is called Pretty Amazing, and it is beautiful. Stampin’ UP! was my first rubber love, and I am always pleased with how their colors and images coordinate so beautifully.

Make sure you check out these fabulous bloggers this morning for more sketch inspiration: Cambria Turnbow, Charmaine Ikach, Jenn Balcer, Laurie Schmidlin, MaryJo Albright, Sharon Harnist .

• Stamps: Pretty Amazing - Stampin’ UP!

• Cardstock: River Rock, Ruby Red, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla and Ginger Blossom Patterened Paper

• Ink: Ruby Red, Chocolate Chip and River Rock Classic

• Accs: Dazzling Diamonds glitter, Build-a-Brad both Stampin’ UP!, Nestabilites by Spellbinders and sewing maching

Really quick post here. I don’t want the girls waiting for me in the car-rider line today. This is my submission for  Julia’s Ways to Use it Challenge at SCS this morning. The challenge was to use Embossing Powder. Well, I use mine frequently, yesterday, in fact. Today, I tried to emboss over a rub-on, and I like the results. 

• Stamps: Silhouette Blooms II by Kim Hughes for Cornish Heritage Farms

• Ink: Brilliance Pearlescent Chocolate

• Cardstock: Cryogen White & Wild Wasabi

• Accs: Wild Saffron Rub-ons from K&Company and Oval punch, Clear Embossing Powder

I got quite a bit done today. I’ve got some sweet Lizzie Anne eye-candy to post later tonight. Thanks for stopping by.

Wonderful sketch for the SCS Challenge today. Thank you, Roxie…she always does a knock-out job. This is the emerging color technique. You can find a full tutorial here. Basically, I stamped the Spanish Script backgrounder in Latte Adirondack ink. Then I stamped the Silhouette Blooms (from cutie-patootie, Kim Hughes) in VersaMark over the top of the script. Next I embossed the blooms with clear embossing powder and rolled more Latte ink over the whole thing with my brayer. Finally, I wiped the excess ink off of the detailed blooms and cut my scalloped rectangle. Voila.

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I had a few minutes to give the Color Challenge at SCS a whirl this morning. I don’t use Sage Shadow too much, so this was fun. It’s a busy week as things are starting to gear up for CHA both for Splitcoast and the stamp companies I work with. It’ll be pushing deadlines from here until the first week of February.  After that, it will be tons of fun as I head to California to meet lots of our SCS advertising customers, catch up with friends from across the country and see the new stuff being unveiled.

•  Stamps: Silhouette Blooms II from Kim Hughes for Cornish Heritage Farms (release date next week!)

• Cardstock: Sage Shadow, Rose Red and Very Vanilla by Stampin’ UP! and Cosmo Cricket Hey Sugar Patterned stripe

• Ink: Apricot Appeal and Rose Red Classic by Stampin’ UP!, Scattered Straw from Tim Holtz

• Accs: Nestabilities (I got mine from Ellen!), Glassy Glaze Embossing Powder, Button, Cosmo Cricket Autumn Borders Rub Ons (I get all my Cosmo Cricket Pretties from Jacksonbelle)

Thanks for stopping by today.

Woo-hoo for Friday! Today’s sketch (Has Beate really been at this for 30 weeks already?) is in response to the support I received yesterday for the Divine Design challenge. Y’all were just ’so kind’, so open, so willing. Thank you for all of the comments and emails that I received. You sure know how to make a heart warm and be encouragers. 

It was fun to work the pieces of this challenge together. I thought the sketch was going to be easy-peasy, but em…all of the white space was tricky. Finally, I cut and and embossed the ’so kind’ sentiment with my Nestabilities and then laid it back into the negative white space. That seemed to give me the pop that I wanted without ‘extra’ stuff.

Make sure you check out these fabulous bloggers this morning:

Cambria Turnbow

Charmaine Ikach

Jenn Balcer 

Laurie Schmidlin 

MaryJo Albright

Sharon Harnist

• Stamps: Priceless by Stampin’ UP!
• Cardstock: Cryogen White and Purely Pomegranate by Stampin’ UP!
• Ink: Pomegranate Classic by Stampin’ UP!
• Accs: Ribbon and Pretties Kit for the stick pin by Stampin’ UP! and Nestabilities by Spellbinders

Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful, wonderful weekend!

      The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of  the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.   John 1:14

 Have you ever had a feeling that you were supposed to do something? You aren’t sure just what the something is, but something… If I pray about it, He usually helps me figure out what that something is. When I started my blog, I wanted it to be a place where I could help to ‘make a difference’ by sharing things the Lord tries to accomplish through me, projects to inspire people I care about a Fresh Word every now and again. In the new year, I’m going to ‘make it happen’.

At first, I was going to bring about 31 days of Proverbs, but honestly, I’m not well studied in the book of Proverbs. So that didn’t feel genuine as I went about writing the initial posts.  Then it came to me to share what you love…scripture that’s touched my heart. I’ll be reflecting and working on memorizing scriptures that I put in this altered journal throughout 2008.

I don’t know about you, but I do better at resolutions if I am committed with someone else. So, I began to think about who would help hold me accountable to this committment to share scripture, regularly. Stamping has afforded me some wonderful, wonderful friendships, and I have been blessed to meet many godly women across the US in the last 7 years. 

In 2008, on the 8th of each month, following today 4 of my friends (and I have hugged each one of these girls in real life LOL!) and I will bring you a scripture that has touched us that month. We will each be working on our own project through out the year, that by December will be filled with the Word.  I encourage you to join us, don’t set your sights on something unattainable…think one or two cards per month. I’ll be setting up a thread at SCS for folks to load, and I’ll edit this post with a link when I get that done later this morning. Let’s work it together to put a little more Jesus on the web this year. Are you in?

The scripture chicks are:

Angel Wilde - Angelosity - Angel and I met through Stampin’ Discuss 5 years ago when we both lived in Wichita, KS. We share a love for Beth Moore Bible studies and a passion for paper crafts. Angel lives in the deep south - Middle Georgia.

Jami Sibley - More is More - Jami and I have been moderators together at SCS for 2 years. We both love adult Sunday School and trying to figure out how we apply what we learn to our everyday life.  We’ve gotten together at SCS functions twice, and I am looking forward to seeing her in her beautiful, native sunny California in just 4 short weeks.

Nancy Morgan -  Paper Smiles - Nancy and I met in Portland last October. She is just the sweetest spirit you could meet. She’s a fabulous paper-crafter, and she was a strong encourager to me to keep sharing the Word.  

Taylor Van Bruggen - Taylored Expressions - I met Taylor last May when I was at SoCal Stamp Mania. Along with loving the Lord, we share an appreciation for growing up in the midwest and being over 6 foot tall. I’ll look forward to seeing Taylor again in just a few weeks, too!

You’ll find much shorter updates each month on the 8th, maybe other times through the month. But, you can always see the work in progress by clicking Divine Design at the right. Thanks for stopping by.

• Stamps: Fall Silhouettes by Kim Hughes for Cornish Heritage Farms

• Cardstock: Prism and Cosmo Cricket Hey, Sugar!

• Ink: Adirondack and Distress by Ranger

• Accs: Dew Drops by Robin’s Nest, May Arts Ribbon, Hardware

I ran to Aldi yesterday for a few groceries, and they had the prettiest super-sized, dark chocolate candy bars at the front door. They were wrapped very simply with this pretty red packaging and very little writing on the wrapper. I snagged a few up to make into quick Valentine’s for some of my favorite people. Who doesn’t love chocolate hugs & kisses, especially if it’s super-sized?

Speaking of Aldi, do any of you shop there? I used to think it was low-budget, lower quality foods. My husband has had the opportunity to work with them for several years as a supplier, and was I ever wrong. They have very high quality standards…very high. They are able to bring quality products at rock-bottom prices because they limit their selection and have very few national brand items. I shop there a lot now. It’s cheap, and we haven’t tried anything we don’t like. So, take your debit card or cash (and a quarter to rent your cart - you get it back when you return your cart to the corral - there’s no cart boy at Aldi!) and try it out. Hey with the money you save, you can buy more stamps. You can thank me later.

• Stamps: Hugs and Kisses by Kim Hughes for Cornish Heritage Farms

• Ink: Palette Burnt Umber

• Cardstock: Prism Birchtone Dark, Making Memories Noteworthy Collection - little pad

• Accs: lace (rescued from the thrift store), Prima flowers, American Crafts Chestnut mini brad and DMC floss to stitch my Xs

One more thing, if you’re still reading…tomorrow, I have a special project that I am going to show you. It will be an ongoing project that I post an update to once a month this year. Just to make sure I follow through on my commitment, I have a few friends that will join me. I have a feeling, you’re gonna like it. See you then ~

A few weeks ago, I asked Lindsey if she would consider some little embellishment kits for folks like me who don’t make it in to the big city very often to see all the new cool toys and do-dads that we paper crafters go nuts over. I’d link you to the first little kit that she put together, but she sold out of ‘em so fast, that..well, there gone.

My box arrived on Saturday, and I thought I’d show you what I put together tonight. A few little vintage type Valentines. This one is for my little dude, Charlie. He’s my nephew and the only boy in our family. I thought this would be perfect for him. The adorable vintage cuts from Daisy D and the coordinating paper from Lindsey, made these cards go together oh-so-fast. I’ll try to let you know when the next kit’s available….after I get mine. Tomorrow, I have a easy-peasy Valentine favor to show you. Thanks for stopping by!

• Stamps: Tag You’re It (hugs) by Kim Hughes for Cornish Heritage Farms

• Cardstock: Cryogen White A1 notecards (cut to 3.5″ squares), Daisy D Maybe Baby patterned paper

• Ink: Sahara Sand

• Accessories: Brads - Paper Studios, red/white twine by Martha Stewart, safety pins by Making Memories, Nestabilities by Spellbinders 

It’s always a wonderful Sunday. It’s my favorite day of the week! But, when the afternoon includes time to stamp, it’s all the better. It’s 70 degrees in mid-Missouri, our windows are open, the kids are enjoying the trampoline and Wes is off hunting. Perfect for the Featured Stamper Challenge at SCS.

Today’s FS is Nancy Riley, and I chose her beautiful Happy card, shown here as a springboard for my card. I had some pretty Maybe Baby Daisy D paper that just arrived from Jacksonbelle, and I knew this layout was a perfect start. I added a matting for the patterened squares and used a frame cut from my Nestabilities to showcase this Bloomin’ Beautiful Blossom that is colored with my Copics, Garnet R39.

For the Copic Tutorial click below:

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But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. ~  II Corinthians 12:9

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