Mosaic Sympathy

Coffee of the Day - Texas Turtle

Hello dear friends! I am sorry for the late posting today. I have been in bed sick, AGAIN, and just got up. I really don't like being sick. I realize no one does. But I just went through this last weekend for 3 or 4 days. Don't want to do it again. Do you hear me putting on the whiny face and falling on the ground, pounding my hands on the floor, kicking my legs like a toddler would do? ;) That is how I feel. Want it to go away and have the happy go lucky, birdies singing in the trees, flying in the window, landing on my shoulder like in Sleeping Beauty ('cause that is my favorite movie EVER in the whole wide world!!!) kinda mood to come back. Maybe tomorrow. Because God still sits on His throne and all is still right with the world even if I feel blechy. and He is just smiling at me right now as any Father would, 'cause He knows it will all be over soon.....

Anyhow... on to my card for today. I saw a few challenges as I was meandering around blog world and wanted to play in some more of them. They truly are quite fun. I hope you will attempt a few this week. One of my faves is Stampin Sisters in Christ. I wanted to play last week, but was just shy of getting mine finished in time. So this week I made sure to complete my project promptly. Based on this verse, we are to create somthing beautiful from something broken:

Hosea 6:1 "Come, let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds."

This verse is so comforting right now. I decided to use the mosaic technique - one of my very faves and one I don't use often enough. The glitter paper is from Making Memories. Each torn piece was distressed with choco ink and the matted choco piece was distressed with my tool. Two ways to distress paper! The beautiful trim is from my JoAnn's stash, satin ribbon is Anna Griffin, flower is Prima, punch for leaves is Martha Stewart, and the button is a vintage one. The card base edges were sponged with white craft ink. The digi is from Doodle Beans. I painted the flower centers with caramel shimmerz and outlined the flowers & highlight areas with pink shimmerz.

Have a great evening! I will see you tomorrow!

Jennifer

Creative Card Crew Challenge - Distressing

Cute Daisy May - Flower and Ribbon

And He Shall Be Called ... Prince of Peace

Coffee of the Day - Holiday Spice

It's a glorious day! I hope you see it that way as well! God has placed on my heart today the whole idea of perspective.

Think of the people in the time of Jesus' birth. They expected a King to be born. and He was, but He came in a way that was least expected - born in a stable surrounded by animals, not in a castle. In the peoples' perspective, Jesus couldn't be the Messiah. His earthly father was a carpenter. But how like God to do the unexpected. Does He do that in your life? We think that God will only act in grand or huge ways, and of course He can, but He also loves the small acts and speaks with whispers. He longs for us to get quiet and seek his small signs. How often do we miss out on something God is trying to show us or tell us because our perspective is all out of whack? Sadly, I do this all the time. I trust my own judgement and not His. But it is never too late to start afresh! :)

I was reminded of this again when I saw the challenge this morning at Stampin' Sisters in Christ. Based on this verse:

Matthew 6:19-21 "Do not store up for yourself treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

we are to stop hoarding our precious crafting supplies and start actually using them. what an idea! :)

so I decided to pull out some of my wonderful Prima trim, holly leaf, & poinsettia, K & Co. paper and rosette, vintage buttons, and sequins. The card base is sprayed with pearl glimmer mist while the music piece is sprayed with walnut gold. Lots of shine on this big card - it is an entire piece of cs folded in half.

This beautiful verse comes from Doodle Beans. I used my ink squirty tool to help age it.

Have a wonderful start to your week! Love to you!
Jennifer

A New Road...

Coffee of the Day - French Vanilla

A young gentleman who works for my husband out at Camp is going to be starting down a new road at the beginning of next year. He is going to be a missionary in Africa! What an exciting adventure for him! He has gone many times on missionary trips, but has decided to take this on permanently. We are so happy for him, and of course needed a card for him as he begins his new venture in life. I thought this wonderful digi from Doodle Beans fit the bill perfectly. It just goes to show how versatile it is! It also happens to fit the new challenge over at Stampin' Sisters in Christ this week - make a card for someone to tell them that you are praying for them.

I kept the card fairly simple since it is going to a guy. As it is, I am probably going to catch a bunch of grief for the grosgrain ribbon and knot at the side of the card, but oh well, I had to have some kind of fiber on the card, for goodness sakes! giggles! The paper is from Basic Grey's Scarlet's Letter collection. Added just a few vintage buttons tied with linen thread, a quick sentiment to know that he is not going on this journey alone, and the card is finished. Oh yes, I did distress the edges of the card base. sorry for my crooked scan.....

Everyone have a beautiful Sunday! may it be as precious as you are to me!

Jennifer

The Road Not Taken

Coffee of the Day - Cinnamon Hazelnut

Sorry I am sooooooo late getting my Doodle Beans post up today. My guys left a little bit ago on their big deer hunting adventure, and we have been all weekend getting them ready. whew..... what an adventure just getting them ready to go! :) so much stuff to wash, and pack, and prep, and check, and re-check, and run to the store again and again.... goodness me, I am plum worn out! but they will have a wonderful time in the mountains of the Allegheny Forest of western PA. about 2 or 3 dozen men show up at camp every year. then to top it off, our Jeep started leaking gas just within an hour of them getting ready to pull out. so David worked with Tyler and Mick to try to figure out what the problem was. yikes! but they are on their way and should be there within another hour or so. this leaves me and the pups almost a full week of crafting and coffee!!! :)

So here we go with my card.......

I love this peaceful sunset image that Randa has drawn. As soon as I saw it, I knew that I wanted to pair it with this portion of the Robert Frost poem, 'The Road Not Taken'. Thought it would be kinda neat to use my label maker to punch it out rather than print it on the compy (not to mention that Ryan spent all his spare time this weekend on the compy catching up with his friends before taking off to the WILDS where Facebook doesn't exist! grins! no time for mom to squeeze in......) My gorgeous Basic Grey Stella Ruby paper went perfectly with this serene atmosphere. the little flowers are Making Memories. added a skeleton leaf, vintage seam tape, and a wee bitty button.

See y'all in the morning! :)

A Vintage Ornament Line-up

Coffee of the Day - Pumpkin Spice of course (it was hubby's choice today - see below for funny story!)

Today, as is every Sunday, is Doodle Beans day for me. Not designated by Randa, the owner, just by my own choosing. I think because so many of her images have such a special meaning to me in regards to my faith. So it just seemed appropriate to make every Sunday the day I showcase something with the neat digis from DB! :) yep, I'm a goofball, but we all knew that anyway!

One of the new holiday images is this beautiful line-up of ornaments.I love the way they look and immediately wanted to pair them with this gorgeous paper from Basic Grey's Fruitcake collection. I tried to color some of the ornaments to match those in the paper as best I could. I then took my spica glitter pen and outlined each ornament as well as any little swirls, lines, or curlyques within. so irl ther is a lot of shine! This fabby-licious trim is more of my JoAnn's stash - you have just GOT to go check out their trim section to see what they have!! you will be amazed! :) Poinsettia is from Prima, leaf punches are Martha Stewart, and vintage buttons are from my Etsy stash. card base is edged in white craft ink.

Now for the funny story about today's coffee. David chose our flavor today. Actually we had two - the pumpkin spice and creme brulee. but I have to tell you a secret - my hubby is a closet pumpkin spice latte lover! he will go through the drive-thru at Starbucks so he doesn't have to get out and take a chance someone he knows will see him with a pumpkin spice latte & give him a hard time! it makes me giggle every time I think about it!!! I have to order them when we go to Starbuck's together. He is afraid that the guys at the church district office will razz him big time for being a latte lover, so he goes 'undercover' to get his. now understand that my hubby is a 6'4" guy who looks quite intimidating at times. our middle son, Mick, is even taller than his dad. so the idea that he sneaks through the drive-thru just cracks me up!!!!! Obviously he drinks as much pumpkin spice coffee at home as he possibly can!!! Sorry honey bunny, you have been OUTED!!!!

everyone have a great and glorious day! love ya!

Jennifer

Snowman in Plaid

Coffee of the Day - Vanilla Biscotti

Thanks to a reminder on a blog that I visit, I realized I need to get a jump on my Christmas cards! So this cute snowman from Doodle Beans fit the bill quite nicely! I have been wanting to get him all inky, and this seemed like the perfect day....... maybe 'cause I'm longing for snow and it is supposed to get up into the 70's today. gorgeous - don't get me wrong, but I am ready for winter. the trees here are all bare, so it just seems like we need the snow. :)

I used papers from Basic Grey Dasher, added some neato trim from JoAnn's, a beautiful stacked poinsettia and holly leaf from Prima, and ta da! card is done! of course he needed a bit of sparkle, so I added some shimmerz on his mittens, coal buttons, snowflakes, and holly leaves. I used my white gel pen to make a few polka dots on his scarf - he needed something fun around his neck to keep him cozy! :) Chunky glitter snow completes the image.

Have a wonderful day! We have the windows open all through the house, and it is really quite glorious! :)

Counting Blessings

Coffee of the Day - Vanilla Biscotti

I am sorry for the late post today - haven't been feeling well and couldn't get around easily. the compy was really rough on my head, so have avoided it. but did want to get my card posted for one of the challenges, so this will be short. Please be sure to check back tomorrow for the big blog hop for Jaimie.

I checked out the new challenge over at Stampin' Sisters in Christ for the week. It is to make a card that honors the times when God is unseen based on the verse in Deuteronomy 31:8 "The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged." (NIV) I know that so often I feel God's presense when I am in worship, not necessarily in a building, but when listening to music. I can close my eyes and get lost in the notes, the rhythms, the feels of the stanzas, the words. I love to stand in a church service among my fellow brothers and sisters and get carried away to God's feet. I can feel the angels singing along, and I know God smiles. But I can also hold tight to those feelings when times get tough, such as now when I am physically so very weary, and know that He has not left me. He is still holding me, the angels are still singing, and the music still plays. I may not feel it as strongly, but it is all still there just the same.


So I printed the church image from Doodle Beans on this beautiful Prima paper, as a subtle reminder, that not all has to be so 'in your face obvious'. The sentiment comes from the Count Your Blessings Leaves digi. Using my circle punch, I punched out just the words, distressed the edges, and then popped it up in the center of this wonderful Prima flower. I added some neat glitter flourishes from Making Memories, pretty crochet trim, and vintage buttons. I followed a sketch from Whimsy and their challenge for the week.



Try something new this week with your digis - print them on decorative paper, use only a portion, mix several together, or whatever floats your boat! Then post back 'cause I would love to see! See you tomorrow! Jennifer

A Beautiful Thankful Day! :)

Coffee of the Day - Almond Roca


I was reminded this morning while reading the new challenge over at Stampin Sisters in Christ, that we need to be thankful in all things. How like God to know that I had this card planned for today! :) It is amazing to me how such little things can be of importance to Him. and what a difference they can make in our lives. It's not a big deal really, but it is certainly enough to make me grin and know that in His way, He is saying, "see, my child, I know EVERYTHING about you and I am watching. I know it all, and I care about every detail of your day. I love you THAT MUCH!" and so I say 'thank you, God, for loving me always, most especially when I don't deserve it', which feels like most of the times. and thank you, faithful blogging friends, for sticking with me through the good times and bad! so this card is for you! you touch my day each time you stop by and join me for a cuppa, leave a little comment love, which is in itself leaving a little bit of yourself behind for me to cherish. :)


My card uses this wonderful digi from Doodle Beans. It is available in both black and brown print. Here I have used the brown. The paper is Basic Grey Indian Summer. I sponged rose on the sentiment and around the edges. Artichoke was inked over the distressed edges and also sprayed using my ink squirty tool. I did a light gold wash over the entire piece. The leaves and berries were filled in with spiced cider shimmerz paint. I added this fabby glitter flourish from Making Memories and a handfull of buttons from my vintage stash. Some JoAnn's lace trim and vintage seam tape finish off the card.


I guess what makes me giggle the most about this card is that I had one of my all time fave CD's playing while I was making it - one by a group called 'The Insyderz' entitled Skalleluia. They are a Christian Ska band. It is just so in contrast to my card - but that is me! sassy and shabby all at the same time! :) good thing God loves me just as I am, but is always moving me to where HE wants me to be!!! thank Heavens for grace!


Have a glorious day! love ya!
Jennifer

Home is Where the Heart is

Coffee of the Day - Pumpkin Spice

Wanted to share a little homespun card with you today that uses a digi from Doodle Beans. I found these interesting vellum craft papers in my stash from Martha Stewart and thought it would be neat to pair them with this sweet digi to create a homey feeling card. I punched the hearts and added a little twine tied button to each. A bit of wired gingham ribbon finishes off the card. The card base was edged in white craft ink to add to the country feel. I sponged white craft ink over the house to give the appearance of a stucco finish - really adds more dimension irl.

Have a great afternoon!

Jennifer

p.s. sorry for the short post, but I am really sick today and needing to get back in bed.... blech! :(

Doodle Beans Sympathy & Blogaversary Candy winner

Coffee of the Day - more Pumpkin Spice!

Hello! Several things for you today. I guess first and foremost is the winner of my blogaversary prize drawing! That is probably what most of you are coming to see this morning! :) My actual blogaversary isn't until the end of the month, but seeing that the prize package contains fall themed proucts, I wanted to get this out asap. So will

-------> SARA <--------

send me an email so I can send out your prizes to you just as quickly as I can!!! congratulations!!!

Now on to my card. yeah, I know, it's the big let-down after all of the fun! grins!!

Sadly I was in need of a sympathy card. Remember our nephew Wesley that many of you have been praying for? Well our BIL's mom passed away the other night, Wes's grandmother. This family has seen so much tragedy in the past month. Our BIL's father died just a month ago. But goodness, so much sadness for an entire family. My heart is breaking for our family. It brings great comfort knowing that God is holding them tightly in His arms. No other place can bring the same kind of comfort. and they are truly finding rest there. I am amazed at the strength that they are gathering from the prayers of friends and family. Truly a blessing. Truly indeed.

My card uses this beautiful digi from Doodle Beans. I watercolored it, being sure to let the inks pool in certain spots. I love that effect with watercolors! The flower centers were painted with beeswax shimmerz and then the little lines were highlighted with a gold spica glitter pen. I painted the main image edges with the same shimmerz paint. The paper is from the Basic Grey Lilykate collection. Isn't this vintage trim gorgeous?!?!? I found it over on Etsy. the buttons are vintage, too, and I added a little prima rose along with some vintage seam tape. The card base is edged in whte craft ink.

Everyone have a glorious day! Hug your loved ones tight, and tell them how much you love them!

and love you, too!

Jennifer

Everlasting Kaleidoscope

Coffee of the Day - Vanilla Biscotti

My card today uses digis from Doodle Beans. The sentiment is actually a freebie - what a special treat! :) I painted the entire kaleidoscope circle with butter cream shimmerz once the ink had dried to add a sparkle like the toys have. Because shimmerz are water based, the inks began to run a bit, which led to a really cool effect - at least I happen to like the way it turned out! I sponged a dark grey ink around the edges of the image to highlight the digi itself and then ran my paintbrush still filled with shimmerz along the edges. The paper is Basic Grey Marrakech. Ribbon and trim are actually some remants I picked up, buttons are from my vintage stash, and felt flower is a Prima with a blue dew drop center.

This morning as I was taking Mick and Ryan over to the high school for their marching band trip to Cedar Point Amusement Park, I heard one of my favorite songs of all time - "From the Inside Out". Many people know it as "Everlasting". It was made famous by Hillsong, but has recently been released by another artist. It seemed so providential to hear this....... and I was in tears as soon as the first notes began playing. I will post some of the lyrics here. Please go see the YouTube video if you get the chance. It is truly powerful. And so amazing that it goes with the card I had planned to post today - a kaleidoscope - a toy that goes around and around, always changing, but always staying constant. So reminiscent of God and His love for us. I needed this after the news I received on Friday about all of my tests. it wasn't good. and I am still reeling. I'll talk about it later, but in the mean time I rest in the assurance that God is Everlasting. Amen.

A thousand times I've failed
Still your mercy remains
And should I stumble again
Still I'm caught in your grace

Everlasting, Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending, Your glory goes beyond all fame
my heart and my soul, Lord I give you control
Consume me from the inside out Lord
Let justice and praise become my embrace
To love You from the inside out

Your will above all else, my purpose remains
The art of losing myself in bringing you praise

Everlasting, Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending, Your glory goes beyond all fame
my heart and my soul, Lord I give you control
Consume me from the inside out Lord
Let justice and praise become my embrace
To love You from the inside out

Indian Summer Leaves Blessing

Coffee of the Day - Creme Brulee

Hello! I am so loving this new pad of paper from Basic Grey - Indian Summer! the papers ae so wonderful! so I have a feeling that you are going to be seeing a lot of it in the coming weeks!! :) (just warning ya!!)

My beautiful digi is from Doodle Beans. I decided to go with lots of distressing today. plus there is a lot of sparkle here - the center of the circle is painted in beeswax shimmerz as well as the edge of the main image & the top little vintage button. Sure is a neat way to dress up a plain ol' button! card base was edged and sponged with vanilla craft. trims are from Webster's Pages and JoAnn's. buttons are all vintage. big leaf is by Prima and small ones are punched from BG paper with a Martha Stewart punch.

Be sure to check out the rest of the Doodle Beans DT's blogs to see what they are up to! and the store is constantly being updated with really neat new digis!

See you tomorrow! :) Jennifer

Vintage Doodle Beans Balloons

Coffee of the Day - Pumpkin Spice

Sorry to be late posting today. having problems with blogger and compy and pretty much anything techy........... so anyhow..........

Today's card features the Hot Air Balloons digi from Doodle Beans. I love the look of this card - I think it's one of my new faves! it was great fun to put together! The card is 5 1/2" x 5 1/2" square and just about as vintage as can be. The bg paper is from K & Co. The main image was watercolored and sponged with caramel ink. I then sprayed the whole thing with walnut gold glimmer mist to age it. The card base was also sprayed with the same glimmer mist. love love love the splotches of ink!!! buttons are all vintage, stamps & star are from Making Memories, flower is prima.

Love to ya! Jennifer

An Apple Tree for you and me!

Coffee of the Day - Almond Roca

Another quickie post as I'm heading out the door to help Dave at Camp today. One of the churches in our District is having their worship service and picnic at Camp today. Can't wait to see some old friends, make a few new ones, and praise the Lord!!!! and I get to do a little servin', too, as I'll be in the kitchen and at the grill. Can't wait!

But I wanted to share a card I made using this neat digi from Doodle Beans. I really love the feel of the digis from this cool new company - they create such peace in me. As I have been doing lately, I watercolored the image. But after the ink had dried on the tree, I took my widest paint brush and got it wet with only water. I then ran it over the entire tree to give it a wash. Since these are classic inks and not water resistant, the colors began to run - which is EXACTLY what I wanted. it helped to lightly fill in the white spots between the leaves without adding a strong shade. Not sure how well it shows in the scan, but irl, it is super cool!!! :) just a soft touch of color in exactly the right spots! Added this little sentiment down toward the bottom to mimic grass ( at least that is what it is SUPPOSED to do!! giggles!) Papers are Basic Grey Archaic. I used some of the new distress stickles on the center of the baby prima flower. WAAAAAAY cool stuff! it really does give a much different look than the traditional stickles. don't know if you can tell, but one of the buttons reminds me of an apple with the way it's holes are cut, so on the card it went!

have a GLORIOUS day!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love ya! Jen

Operation Nice Blog Hop Day 3

Coffee of the Day - Pumpkin Spice with Caramel (oh, a nice yummy extra bit of flavor!)

For the final day of our Operation Nice Blog Hop, I want to hopefully inspire you to take a little bit deeper glance into your faith. Not wanting to stand on a soapbox or behind a pulpit here, but my faith is such an integral part of my everyday life, and I just feel the need to share a tiny bit with you.

My life has not been an easy one by any means, but it has indeed been a blessed one. Much comes from our perspective. Maybe someday I will share more on a much deeper level, but suffice it to say that there isn't much that I haven't been through in some form or fashion, with the exception of substance abuse (but it has hit my family). Through all of this 'ick', including my severe illnesses, God has never left my side or stopped showing me His love. I don't always see it 'cause I'm not always looking. But that hasn't stopped Him.

So today's card is to hopefully encourage you to show niceness and kindness to others as a way of saying 'thank you' to God for the many ways He has blessed your life. I remember a time when I would send anonymous cards to different people in our church - signing them, "God just wants you to know that He loves you". He would lay on my heart whomever happened to be needing a card at the time. Sometimes in our day to day 'getting by', we need to know that God really is sending a little bit of love via a friendly messenger. Maybe it's taking a dozen cookies to that little girl down the street with the broken arm, or a small container of soup to the neighbor who has a cold. I have found that quite a bit can be said by giving someone a loaf of homemade (or really good quality store bought) bread. You don't even need to give a big flowery speech - just a little, "God and I were thinking about you today" will do just fine!

My card uses the church image from Doodle Beans. I chose this because you see, we are God's church, wherever we are. We don't have to be in a building to His work (don't misunderstand what I'm trying to say here - He does want us to fellowship with other believers - that is just not all). The papers are from Prima. the music sheet is from an old hymnal. buttons are vintage as is the lace trim. other trim is a little scrap I had. windows are covered in crystal effects, and the building was sponged in white craft ink to help give extra dimension.

Thanks for putting up with me today. This post comes directly from my heart to yours! Now keep on hoppin' over to Angie's blog! :) love ya!

Introducing my new friend..... and some great news, too! :)

Okay, no cards for this post, but stick around anyhow 'cause I promise it'll make ya giggle - or at least smile!!!! :) trust me..........

Today David and I went on a little adventure. He is on vacation all this week, so we are spending some great time together (except when he is honking at absolutely EVERYONE which is just a thing he does 'cause he likes to wave at strangers to see their reactions....... oh yea, I love him, but I still do duck down in the passenger seat.......). So we took a walking tour of Chagrin Falls today. It's only about 20 minutes away from us, but we hardly ever go. It is just the most adorable little town/suburb of Cleveland. so verrrrry charming. We went into a pet bakery. I took a few samples. I can't believe David actually thought that I thought that they were for people!!! No, I was taking them for our dear pups, Mocha and Latte, back home for their little treat for the day! The expression on his face was priceless! We explored so many wonderful antique stores and this one adorable little herb shop that had their very own Fairy Village inside. Even David was impressed with that one. But the best stop was this one......... you will smile 'cause all of you know me!

And now to introduce all of you to my new friend, Pollyanna the Pig. Isn't she just the most precious thing you have ever gazed upon?!?! I'm thinking that your reaction is probably a weeeee bit different from that of the guys in my house....... oh the comments going around last night after I received her. yes, you read that correctly. She was a GIFT from the most wonderful Princess I know. We are members of the Tiara Club together. Kirstyn is a special friend of my son, Mick, and we used to wear our tiaras together at Camp Burton last summer. So we are honorary members of the Tiara Club. Those of you who saw my earlier posting where I referred to myself as the Princess of Sassiness didn't realize that I actually have a crown for it!! :) It rests upon the head of one of my Winnie the Pooh bears that sit on my compy. Well, you can't just put your tiara ANYWHERE you know!!!!! ;)

Back to Pollyanna - Kirstyn called me last night and said that she had bought me something that reminded her of me. She came over with this precious pet! You can't see it so well in the photo, but she is wearing the most wonderful pink tutu. Well, if you are gonna wear a tutu, it will most certainly be wonderful!!!! So we all tossed around names last night. I refuse to post the names the men in my family came up with. They do not do Pollyanna justice. They were not kind to her, and I refuse to allow anything unpleasant to come into her life. She is my Pollyanna, and every time I look at her I will be reminded of the joy and happiness that life can bring! So nanny, nanny, boo, boo, boys!!!!! and yes, I'm sticking out my tongue at you!!! A real Princess can do that! :D

Now for the news - I received an email this evening announcing that I am now a member of the Doodle Beans Design Team! I am so excited to join this fun new group! More info to come later.....