Make a Difference

May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. ~ Galations 6:14

 Here is the 3rd card in my hanging scripture project. This sits on a file cabinet in my stamping space to ponder on through-out the month. Easter is my favorite holiday of the year. It doesn’t come with many decorations or fanfare at our home, just lots of reflection on the power of the cross and the grace of Jesus Christ.  No matter where you are at, may you find joy in the forgiving, saving, joyful power of the cross this Easter.

Read about the Divine Design Challenge, and feel free to join me and Angel , Jami, Nancy and Taylor as we post a special scripture on the 8th of each month. I have been so blessed and encouraged by your comments and your participation. God is good! The only rule is that your project must contain scripture, not quotes or inpirational thoughts IF you want to use the keyword when loading to the SCS Gallery - BVC08. 

In my March project, the scripture is less pronounced in my design. That is on purpose. I wanted the focus to be on the cross.  All images are from a new collection at Cornish Heritage Farms by Aimee Nugent.

• Stamps: May I Never Boast  and Modern Cross - Cornish Heritage Farms

• Cardstock: Spring Willow Medium - Prism, Cryogen White and Honey Pie Collection - Cosmo Cricket

• Ink: Salmon, Willow, Mountain Rose Adirondack - Ranger

• Accs: Nestabilities, May Arts Ribbon, Faux Pearls - Ellen Hutson

We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

                                                                 ~ I Corinthians 8:1

Here it is month 2 of the Divine Design Challenge. Anyone is free to join me and my friends Angel, Jami, Nancy and Taylor as we post a special scripture on the 8th of each month. The only rules are that it must be scripture, not quotes or inpirational thoughts IF you want to use the keyword when loading to the SCS Gallery - BVC08.

The scripture I chose this month is ALWAYS on my mind around Valentine’s Day. If you really like the backstory, you can read one of my very first blog posts HERE. When I think about this verse and it’s special Valentine sentiment, I am flying high. I guess that is how each of us should feel when we read the greatest love letter ever written. I hope that love fills your weekend as you prepare for the holiday that celebrates it.

Click below for supplies and answers to common questions about Divine Design.

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I told you…I’m a MESS! I started to take a picture of my craft space, but since a lot of it is packed up for a class that I had last night, it wouldn’t be fair. You wouldn’t have a full appreciation for the stuff I am stepping over to get into my seat.  This is a little journal that I made for my purse to keep me on track in my paper crafting. I needed a little book for color swatches, snipets of ribbon and patterned paper, sketches, inspiring magazine pictures, etc.

The stamps are from Lesley Langdon’s Rummage Bin Collection at Cornish Heritage Farms. This set is called Ledger Me. The first time I saw this set, I laughed at the coffee ring. That’s so me! I kept the fluff to a minimum because it does have to stand up to the MESS of my purse or book bag. The buttons are firmly attached with a glue dot and actually sewn through the chipboard cover on the journal. They aren’t going anywhere.

One of the reasons I am a MESS is my switch to new inks recently. For the most part, I’ve gone Ranger. This is a color swatch peek at the Adirondack line. So, my crafting space is a big ole pile of stamps and accessories that will need to find new homes soon. See, I like being married, and I’m not sure how much longer my sweet husband will stand for hurdling over ink pads, markers and such to get to the computer. Sometimes, shared space is not a good thing.

• Stamps: Ledger Me - Rummage Bin Collection by Cornish Heritage Farms

• Cardstock: Crate Paper, Cryogen White and Blush Red Dark Prism

• Ink: Red Pepper Adirondack, Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Distress Ink

• Accs: Red Buttons by foo-foo-la, Black Velvet flower ribbon by Prima, Linen Thread, Shimmery Ribbon from JodyLynn.

See you tomorrow ~

I am in love with this Wild Saffron Line from K&Company. Whenever I have had time to just play since Christmas, I have reached for the die-cut photo mat paper and bright embellishments. Here, I paired them with a few Kim Hughes images for a bit of fun. To make this 4.25″ square card, I needed to trim the 4×6 photo mat down. I cut mine in the middle and then hide the seam with a ribbon.

I can’t stand to throw anything away, so that little 2″ splice of grid paper became a key element in this little ‘bag-a-lope’ gift sack. It started out as a A2 envelope. The finished dimensions are approximately 5″ tall, 3″ across and about 1.25″ wide. You can see a step-by-step tutorial here. 

• Stamps: Tag You’re It and Bloomin’ Beautiful by Kim Hughes for Cornish Heritage Farms

• CS: Wild Saffron Die-cut Photo Mat, Prism Baby Blue Light and Suede Dark Brown

• Ink: Palette Burnt Umber

• Accs: Foo-foo-la buttons, grosgrain ribbon (May Arts), Wild Saffron felt embellishments and journal tags, Nestabilities and Copic Markers

See you tomorrow!

      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

A few weeks ago at the wholesale club, I came across these tins of shortbread cookies. I knew they would be perfect for some of the people who make my life easier: the school secretary, the church secretary, the ‘grandma’ in my daughter’s class. I also knew that my Crafty Secrets vintage Christmas stamp set would work wonderfully for pretty and fast tags. I did 8 of these tins in about 2 hours, little less because I was talking on the phone at the same time…gotta multi-task this time of year. Whew…one thing off the list, only 30 more to go. Off to tackle the next ‘to-do’.  Thanks for stopping by.

• Stamps: Vintage Christmas from Crafty Secrets Clear Art Stamps & Fancy Flex Phrases

• Cardstock: Chocolate Chip and Caramel Stardream Metallic

• Ink: Chocolate Chip Classic

• Accs: Misc. ribbons, Dew Drops, metallic gold thread, Nestabilities by Spellbinders

Remember when I was so excited a few weeks back about the smaller notecards and envelopes (A1 - approximately 3.5″x5″) in Curious Cryogen White that www.cutcardstock.com put in their store at my request. And, by my request I mean, I asked Cinday about them on Monday and had them in hand by Thursday, I think! This is what I do with them.

So many of us try to re-invent the wheel when it comes to gift giving, but the tried and true for people on my list, is little sets of note cards! They love receiving them and using them. So, here is a little set that I made using Lizzie Anne’s Christmas in the City set. Keeping the embellishments to a minimum makes mass production easy. I made a little box with a short series of scores and cuts, but a cello bag and pretty ribbon is just as nice.

I am out the door to deliver Meals on Wheels, but you can see the instructions for this project and the other design team projects at Lizzie Anne! Cute, cute stuff by some of your favorite paper crafters. Tomorrow I am hoping to share a little gift idea for special people at my daughter’s school. Have a great day!

You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast,

because he trusts in you. ~ Isaiah 26:3

 Journalling scripture, questions, answered prayers, desires and the Lord’s response is a wonderful way to keep your mind steadfast on Him.

This is a journal that I started back in the middle of summer, shortly after I received that wonderful first new catalog shipment from Stampin’ UP! The cocoa designer paper is something that I have really enjoyed using. So, I covered the journal with the DP, and let it sit on my desk … until about 2 weeks ago.

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I used the Outlaw Paper, Wanted and Think Happy Thoughts to make a little tag for this cowboy themed party favor. The circle images in the paper are perfectly sized to work with the SU! punches and the paper takes ink wonderfully. I’ve used some HodgePodge Hardware and dyed Elizabeth fibers to dress this up.

Adhering designer paper to chipboard is easier than you might think. Easy to follow instructions on the next page. 

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Back in March, I spent a lot of time working on my Artisan Award entries. It was a wonderful challenge for me and kudos to all who entered, that in itself was a major accomplishment! I was super excited this morning when I saw that one of my fellow SCS moderators, Belinda King, posted this picture from the SU! Convention Displays…There was my BOX!

I never come up with ‘out of the box’ ideas…so this one was very fun for me. I used the casing to one of SU!’s OnBoard Bitty Albums, turned it up on end and made a little file folder for Mom. The files are for: coupons, gift cards and receipts. It’s decorated in that luscious Au Chocolat paper, ribbons and hodgepodge hardware.

Thanks for sharing my excitement!

Thanks for looking!