The true meaning of Easter

Although I have spent many hours preparing for this Easter, in the way of decorations and gifts for my grandchildren, never has the real meaning of Easter left my mind and my heart. I want, more than anything else this Easter, for my grandchildren to know that I love them and that Jesus loves them even more! Amidst all the bunnies, carrots and things I made them, the most important thing was the message I wrote in each of their Easter cards. Hopefully, these are the things they will read one day when they are older, and ask me or their moms what they mean. I  told them that on Easter, we celebrate what Jesus did for us on the cross, and how much Jesus loves them.


We have been blessed to watch the most unusual mini series this month on the History Channel - entitled "The Bible". I wasn't sure what to expect of this series - so many of today's shows - even ones on this same History channel, are full of bad words and unspeakable horror. I can't imagine letting my children watch many of them. But to my joy, this series on the Bible stayed pretty close to the story line of the Bible. We watched the conclusion this evening - the story of the crucifixion - and I pray that God will use it's truth to bring many people to Himself. So many people have been reported tuning in to this story this past month - probably trying to find some hope in this messed up world. I pray that they will find that hope in Jesus - our Messiah and Savior. His story is true. He lives! Praise the Lord for what He has done!

Here is a clip from the minis series. If you did not get a chance to see it, I believe it goes on sale this week. What a wonderful witnessing tool it would be.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=D2BbDQuHPUw

The word art above is a free pdf offered by Peppermint Creative  here.

I'm ready for Easter!

Hello! I have been working like a crazy person these last couple weeks! I've been making things to go in my 4 grand kids Easter baskets. Although it's been alot of work, I really enjoy doing it. I like it when I can use my stash and talents to give cute things to them. I've been waiting for grandma-hood all my life. :)

Two of the things I've made for the three little one's baskets are carrots and peeps made out of minkee fabric - it's really really soft. I didn't have a pattern for the carrots, I just reasoned it out. I got the pattern for the peeps here. Then I made a little ribbon blankey for my newest grandbaby. Then I decorated each basket with their name, using Papertrey Banner Builder stamps and dies. I cut out a bunny tag for each basket too - with my Silhouette. Here are some pictures:

I hope they enjoy them. I'm glad I'm finally ready for Easter! Except for the food I have to fix - oh well! Hope you have a blessed Easter!

Papertrey MIM #109: Watercolor stamping plus embossing

Hello! I am participating in Papertrey's Make-It-Monday this week. Betsy Veldman showed us how to use our re-inkers as the base for watercolor stamping an image, and then how to emboss the detail of the image over top. You can read more about it here on Nicole's blog.

I chose to use my new Hands of Time stamp set for this challenge. I used Raspberry Fizz, Terracotta Tile, and Orange Zest for my watercolor palette.  I don't have many PTI reinkers to choose from, so I was pretty limited to my palette. First thing I did was to squirt some of each color out on my sheet of acetate, then I misted them with some Glimmer Mist instead of water, in order to give them some sparkle. Then I let them run together some, and then started dipping my stamps in it and pressing them on my cardstock. I started with the large clock face, then added some clock hands and numbers. After letting it dry comeplety, I stamped the clock face and hands with Versamark and sprinkled them with white Filagree embossing powder for the detail. I ended up stamping little rose blooms from Mini Blooms in the number positions on the clock.

The hardest part of this card was the sentiment. Little did I realize that it's difficult to stamp over embossing. I found that out with "Time". I ended up having to go over it with a copic fine line marker. Then comes the rest of the sentiment....  I knew I couldn't just stamp it directly on the paper because of the embossing and the tiny little letters, so I decided to stamp it on vellum. After smearing it the first three times, and trying to emboss it once, I finally ended up with a decent result. Over all, I am pretty happy with this card, although I'm not sure how much the actual watercoloring added to it. It was fun to try out this new technique though. Hope you enjoy it! 

Wizard of Oz album

Hello! I wanted to share a mini album I made for one of my friends who collects Wizard of Oz stuff. I was having a hard time coming up with what to give her for her birthday, and suddenly it hit me that a little album full of WOZ quotes would be cool - a fun little thing to look through when you needed to smile. :)

So I set to work with Papertrey Patterned paper, my computer, my printer, some WOZ stickers from Paper House Productions, and some sequins (Lisa loves bling!). The actual album pages are from Melissa Francis - I picked it up a a show for $1!  Here is the fruit of my labor.

Front cover

 

 Back cover

 Hope you enjoyed it! And I hope Lisa likes it too! It was fun to put together. :)

Papertrey March 2013 Blog Hop

Hello! I am participating in Papertrey's March Blog Hop. The challenge for the hop is to use sequins on your card.

You can read all about the challenge here.I fought this for a while, thinking I didn't need to invest in ANOTHER embellishment. I know the way I am - these kinds of things are addicting! But alas, I gave in and picked up some sequins at my local Joann's and made a shaker card for my grandson for Easter.










I have 4 grandchildren, and I made cards for each. Here is Will's, who is almost 8 months old. I used Hello Foxy, Scrambled Eggs (the little flowers) and Fabulous Frames to make this shaker card. I just loved Nicole Heady's birthday card here, and used it as my inspiration. This is the card that meets the Blog Hop challenge to use sequins.

Next up is my card for my 1 1/2 year old granddaughter Chloe. I resisted buying the Papertrey Movers and Shakers Dies when they first came out. I wasn't sure if I would use them. I bought a Silhouette Cameo for Christmas and have been working to come up with ways I can cut these interactive elements on my Cameo. The slider card was the easiest to figure out - just a long oval cut in the middle of the card. After watching Nicole's video of how the slider element worked, I pulled out my Papertrey Button dies and used a larger pop dot in the middle of two of the larger buttons to make it slide along the track. It turned out to be a fun card! I used Scrambled Eggs and the dies for the chick, as well as Hello Spring for the flowers and sentiment.

Next up is my older grandson Lucas's card. He's 10, so I figured he could handle the zipper card. As I studied the zipper card on Nicole's blog, I figured out how to reproduce the zipper on my Cameo. So now anytime I want, I can cut out a zipper for a card! The bunny is from Paper Smooches, and the sentiment is from Scrambled Eggs. Underneath the zipper is "Easter's on it's way" from Scrambled Eggs. I used Background Basics: Houndstooth on the background of the zipper part.

And lastly, is the card for my newest granddaughter, Sophie. She's only 2 months old, and I decided to use the Polka Dot Parade bunny on her card. I cut the bunny out of the front of the card, and attached him on the inside with a pop dot. I still need to find a white pom pom for his tail.

Thanks for sticking with me on this long post! Enjoy the Blog Hop!

Baby Shower present

Hello! I am sitting here on March 25 in Virginia with 6"+ of snow on the ground! It has been a crazy March, for sure. I wanted to share a gift that I have put together for a dear friend of mine that is having a baby soon. They know it's going to be a little girl - Emma Nicole. My daughter picked up this lovely pink container for me to put all the little gifts in. That's such a practical thing to give a gift in - it can be used in the baby's room to hold all kinds of things - like diapers, toys, etc. So the "packaging" ends up being a gift too! I like that!

First thing I bought and personalized with her name were three hooded bath towels at Walmart. I have an embroidery machine and embroidered her name on the hood of each.

My friend has an older daughter named Jesse, so I had to embroider a little onsie for the baby with "Jesse's little sister"

 Next up is a little ribbon blanket I made for the baby. It's white minkee (VERY soft) on one side, and white satin on the other. I have TONS of ribbons in my stash (I live close to an Offray ribbon outlet!), and I sewed lots of them around the edge. It's about 12" square. The embroidery is hard to see in this picture - it says "nighty night".

 Then I made little hair bands for the baby. I purchased elastic lace and little crochet flowers on etsy. I've made a bunch of these for my own granddaughters. They are very soft and easy to put on newborns when they don't have much hair to put a clip in. I actually thought about trying to learn to crochet these flowers, but soon decided that I wasn't very good at it. Thank goodness for etsy!
I just sewed the elastic (13" for a newborn) together on the ends. Then sewed the flower on by hand, and backed it with a little felt cutout so it is soft against the baby's head. No glue involved - which I like. I packaged them up in Papertrey's new Boutique Accessory dies and stamps, and put them in a little $5 stamp set clear envelope.

 Then I filled in the container with a few other items and made a little tag and card. The card is cut from Papertrey's Onesie die, the tag is from a Graphix 45 paper pad that I have been hoarding. The sentiment on it is from Papertrey Script Sentiments stamp set.

 And here it all is packaged up in the pink container (from Home Goods store), and tied with a pretty Princess bow (from Costco). She really enjoyed looking at all the different things in the gift.

One last thing I'd like to share. There was a picture on the Papertrey forum of someone's carrot barrettes using the new Papertrey Clever barrette dies. These were just the cutest thing ever, and I started thinking of other ways to use the actual shape of the barrette. I came up with these ice cream cones. I just stitched a few x's on the "cone", and used one of the Daydreamer dies to cut out some vintage cream felt for the ice cream. I added some little pink and gold beads for sprinkles. Wouldn't these be cute for a birthday gift for a little girl? They are going to my 1 1/2 year old granddaughter, of course. :)

 

Thanks for looking!Have a wonderful day!

Spring Hills with Winter House

Hello! Papertrey is coming out with the Spring version of Autumn and Winter Hills stamp sets in a couple days. I have both these sets, and thought I'd pull them out and see if I could make them look "Springy" on a card. I'm trying to figure out if I need another one of the set. I used the house in Winter Hills because it didn't have any Winter images around it (the Autumn house has pumpkins on the front steps). I used the tree from Autumn Hills because it looked like the new leaves coming out on the trees. I used Simply Chartreuse patterned paper for the hills (cut with the ITM dies), and the double ended banner for the sentiment, which is from Love Lives Here. I like how it turned out, but I still think I'll get the Spring set (I love the sheep!)

 This envelope was inspired by a couple inspiration photos Danielle Flanders put up on the Papertrey Forum. I thought I'd give it a try for the outside of an envelope for a baby shower gift. I'm sure the Papertrey DT could do a MUCH better job, but I'm pretty satisfied with it. I'm sure I'll be trying it again. Thanks for the inspiration Danielle! I used Mini Blooms and the banner from the Stitched Sentiments stamp set. Colors used were Berry Sorbet, Sweet Blush, Hibiscus Burst and Pure Poppy for the banner and flowers, Limeade Ice and Simply Chartreuse for the leaves.

Thanks for looking!