Wait . . . I'm Not Ready for 2010!

Out with the old and in with the new, as the saying goes. But I'm not quite ready to put away my Christmas stamps. I still have some ideas for Christmas cards that I might forget if I wait until next year. So I'm just going to continue making a few samples using those ideas.

One project that I want to make more of is this 25 Days of Christmas Advent Calendar which is shown here. You can see both the front and back sides.

Didn't have time to make more of them for gifts this year, so I figure starting now is my best bet in order to have them ready before December 2010. The holder is a 12x12" picture frame with a sheet of black card stock covering the glass. I marked off the sections using strips of black chipboard. The picture and the back side are from a scrapbook collection from Graphic 45, Christmas Past. I trimmed the picture down to 10x10" and then cut it into 5 across and 5 down 2x2" sections. Each section of the picture was adhered to a 2x2" piece of chipboard, with the edges painted black with a black Marvy Marker. The dates on the back side of the pieces are diecuts from my Cuttlebug. Since all the pieces are totally removable, I'm going to make another set of calendar pieces using the angel page from the Christmas Past collection (pictured here).

Then, I can alternate the sets over the years. Oooh, fun!

Speaking of the future, I wonder what God has in store for me in the coming new year. In what ways will He reveal Himself to me? How will He involve me in His work? Who will He bring across my path and ask me to minister to them? Well, it's okay that I don't know the answers to these questions, for I shall be living in faith and joyful anticipation for whatever comes my way. As Paul said in Philipians 4:11, ". . . for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content . . ."

The light of God surrounds me,

The love of God enfolds me,

The power of God protects me,

And the presence of God watches over me;

Wherever I am, God is.

Wishing you many blessings in the coming New Year.

Annie

How I Love Christmas!

I know, I know -- it's only Dec. 15, but I've been in the Christmas spirit for over a month now. So sorry I haven't been able to post sooner, but I've been having such a good time doing all these Christmasy things. Read a wonderful book called "The Magi," watched a spiritually moving DVD called "The Bethlehem Star," did my annual reading of another book called "The Twelve Cats of Christmas," have a couple of Christmas movies to watch this weekend, attended the Holiday Spice Variety Show earlier this month, plus my stamp club's annual Christmas Breakfast, and my Bible Study class Christmas Party. And will attend the Mannheim Steamroller Christmas Show on Thursday evening. Whoo-eee, too much fun!!! And I'm so looking forward to Christmas Eve for our Christmas Candlelight Service, and Christmas morning, when we do our Bible reading of the birth of Jesus, my Lord and Savior. Oh I do love this time of year!

Started making my Christmas cards in November and have had a wonderful time of ideas and creativity. So I've posted just a few of the designs to share with you and some money holders made from Stampin' Up treat cups. There's a hundred things you can do with these little treat cups. In fact, one of my dear friends sent me a huge list of ways to use them -- let me know if you're interested in a copy. If your muse has left you and you're stuck for ideas, maybe these will get you going.

These little treat cup ornaments are filled with money with only the face on the bill showing. They look really cute hanging on the tree. Well, back to the workbench -- I still have some ideas and stamps I want to play with.

My prayer for you is that you experience the true meaning of Christmas this year. May you love and obey our Heavenly Father, believe that Jesus is the son of God, and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Wishing you the Merriest of Christmases and a joyful celebration of His birth.

Annie

Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Everywhere

There's another way to tell that autumn is coming on besides the leaves turning the beautiful fall colors and the crispness of the morning air. Pumpkins suddenly come to life -- appearing on front porches and steps, nestled among a dining room table decoration, and stacked in front of grocery stores displayed in their blazing coats of orange. Autumn also means that I get to play with my pumpkin stamps. So yesterday I browsed through the drawer where they had been hibernating until their season came around again. And that reminded me how blessed I am to live in a place in God's world where the seasons are uniquely and distinctly different from each other -- each with a glory of its own. What a gift!

So I set about, pulling out stamps, papers, inks and got busy. Here's a couple of cards that resulted from the flowing creative juices yesterday. Sometimes I like to do something special on the inside of the card also.

Sizzix Big Kick dies and Stampin' Up punches were used for all the different shapes.

These teeny pumpkins are set out every autumn. They're made using little clay pots and are only a bit over one inch tall. A sparkly cord comes out at the top and they have tiny punched leaves on their head. I never fail to chuckle when they once again make their appearance.
For those of you who love carving pumpkins, here's a PUMPKIN PRAYER for you to use for yourself, or with children or grandchildren.
(Remove the top of the pumpkin and pray:) "Lord, open my mind so I can learn new things about you."
(Pull out the seeds and pray:) "Remove the things in my life that don't please you. Forgive the wrong things I do and help me to forgive others."
(Remove the eyes and pray:) "Open my eyes to see the beauty you've made in the world around me."
(Take out the nose and pray:) "I'm sorry for the times I've turned up my nose for the good food that you have provided."
(Remove the mouth and pray:) "Let everything I say please you."
(Place a candle inside, light it, and pray:) "Lord, help me show your light to others through the things I do."
One final thought, we can be close to God in whatever we do -- even when carving pumpkins. May you be blessed in a special way this autumn season.
Annie

Birthday Card - How Many Fingers Are You?

This is a card I made for my Uncle Vern for his 80th birthday. The sentiment stamp is from Inkadinkadoo. The inside of the card has an accordian folded pull-out showing 80 fingers. His comment was, "Well isn't that something! I like this Annie." It was music to my ears.







The birthday party was super -- lots of laughter, tears, and sharing memories of special times with Uncle Vern.


Here's the birthday boy (in the center), his son Brad on the left, granddaughter Emilie, grandson Baron to his right, Aunt Marge, and son Randy.

Butterflies -- God's Flying Flowers

Oh boy, do I love butterflies! They truly are like flying flowers. When I saw the cover of the October issue of Scrap & Stamp I just fell in love with the 3D butterfly wall art. It was just one of those "gotta have it" things so I spent a morning stamping and cutting out butterflies to make my own wall art. Mine is smaller than the one I saw in the magazine, only 8x8", but I'm thrilled with the finished project. Um mm, but now where am I going to hang it? The base is actually a canvas for oil painting which I covered with scrapbook paper. Using 12 colors of card stock, I stamped a small, medium, and large butterfly on each color with a set of Basic Grey clear stamps, using black dye ink. Yes -- I did cut out 36 butterflies! But since I didn't use all 36, I have several left over for another project. The edges of the butterflies were inked with coordinating colors of Tim Holtz distress inks. To give them a 3D look, several different thicknesses of pop dots and mounting tape were used to get the desired effect. I don't know how anything so pretty could be so easy to make. If you decide to make one, let me know if you need some help or have any questions.

Butterflies are one of God's especially beautiful creations. That butterfly eggs hatch into little caterpillars is strange, amazing, miraculous, and wonderful. Why don't they hatch into baby butterflies? Anything you plant from seed comes up like the plant it came from. Fish eggs hatch into little fish. Human eggs develop into baby humans. Yet it pleased our Creator to make butterfly eggs hatch into caterpillars. The Caterpillar grows, sheds it skin a couple of time, takes a week or two nap, and finally wakes up as a butterfly. Did I already say strange, amazing, miraculous, and wonderful!!!

I think we are like butterflies -- every shape and size, different colored, unique, and beautiful to God. When we invite God into our lives, He changes us, we emerge, spread our wings . . . and fly. The minute we know that God is within us, there is nothing that can hold us back from living the life that He wants us to live, according to His plan. If you are living a life that doesn't feel right, you are like a butterfly that cannot spread it's wings. If you feel something holding you back, pray, and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you and lead you to the path that God meant for you to walk. So think of yourself as a butterfly that God created. Isn't it wonderful to know that there is no other butterfly on this earth just like YOU.

God bless and keep you as you find your way and spread your beautiful wings and fly!

Annie

Look What's Coming!

Look what's coming to Wenatchee Valley Baptist Church! If you are within driving distance to Wenatchee, Washington, you won't want to miss this women's conference, "Free to be Real." Click on the link below to check out who the speakers and entertainers will be during this event:

http://www.ewomen.net/lineup

What a fun time this will be of connecting with other women in worship and inspirational messages. Tickets are only $20 and that includes lunch - what a deal! Call the church office Monday - Thursday, 9-4, to purchase a ticket, 509/663-4868.

Don't you just love the neon colors of the Ewomen poster! Who would have thought that hot pink and orange would look so good together. Uhmm, neon -- that reminds me, Stamp Zia has released a new product -- neon colored pencils. They match Zia's Neon Jewels watercolor washes. Take a look at them here: http://www.stampzia.com/accessories/neonpencils.htms.htm

Let me see, how many mochas will I need to forgo so I can add them to my toolbox . . . oh, I'll figure that out later.

Here are some pieces I painted for card making using the Neon Jewel color washes and rubber stamps from Stamp Zia and watercolor paper. They are so bright and colorful -- I think they will be perfect to send to someone in need of being cheered up. Now to figure out some card layouts.

The background technique is very simple: 1) Pour about 1/2 tsp of one of the Neon Jewels onto a non-porous surface (glass table top or smooth counter surface both work well). Press your watercolor paper into the paint. Pick up the paper and place it down again into a second color, making sure the color is "printed" partially over the first color (turn your paper in a different direction in order to allow other colors to layer over the previous colors). Repeat this step with remaining colors until the entire surface is covered. Dry surface with heat gun. 2) Stamp your image in permanent ink and dry with heat gun. And there you have it.

Oh, one more thing, let me share with you the new bible verse I posted in the right column. It's an especially meaningful one to me -- maybe it's one of your favorites too.

Annie

Looking back . . .

When we take a minute to stop and look back to times when we were children, we may find ourselves comparing how it was “then” to how it is “now.” Maybe you younger gals don’t notice a lot of change right now because you have not yet reached an age to have many years to look back on. That’s okay; you’ll get there. :)

The other day as I was scanning pictures of my newest scrapbook page creations, I was thinking about how much scrapbooking has changed since I was a little girl. Back “then” a scrapbook and a picture album were definitely two different things. My Mom gave me my first scrapbook when I was in the 5th grade. I kept all sorts of little treasures in it – birthday cards, notes from girl friends, cutouts from the newspaper, perfect attendance certificates from school, and other memorabilia. Photos that Mom snapped and gave to me were put in my very own picture album (it was a big deal). Of course, this still can be done separately. However, the popular trend of scrapbooking today has grown to mean a creative page with the combination of the two. It’s a lovely way to express memories.

For quite a while, it was hard for me to break from tradition. I just could not bring myself to leave out any pictures by just choosing the best ones for creative pages, and I certainly couldn’t “crop” a picture! Holy cow, that would be as bad as writing in my books, or worse yet – writing in my Bible! Of course, I overcame those last two hang-ups a long time ago.

What finally started me with creative scrapbooking was my trip to Israel and walking through the Holy Land. It had such a spiritual impact on me that there was no way that I could just put the pictures in an album and call it good. I wanted the memories of what I saw and did to vividly come to mind when looking at the pictures. I wanted to see the keepsakes along side the pictures, and I had to have journaling – bits of history, emotions, descriptions -- words to help me remember.

So here I am – scrapbooking away and having a gloriously fun time! Although the two pages I’m showing you today are not of happy times, visiting the Holocaust Museum was part of my trip and I want to include everything I experienced. So that's why I want to share with you how I memorialized the day spent at Vad Vashem.

On the first scrapbook page, the middle photo is of the young men and women in the Israeli army. They are very young -- just like our own young soldiers -- it breaks my heart when I think of war.

The Memorial Pen at the bottom right on the second page symbolizes Vad Vashem's message -- Remembering the Past, Shaping the future. The barbed wire stem recalls the pain and trauma of the Holocaust, while the leaves stemming from the wire symbolizes rebirth and hope.

Will you remember to pray with me for our armed forces?
Annie

"We are . . .persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed . . ."
II Corinthians 4:9

10 Minute Birthday Card

Postage Collage Images; Happy Birthday rubber stamp by Denami

Design

Use Your Talent!

Have you said this or heard this before -- I'm not talented . . . or . . . I don't have any talent? I used to say that about myself. However, when I became a follower of Jesus, I soon learned that our Creator instilled within each of us a unique talent, a gift, which He wants us to use for His Glory. Uhmmm, using our talent for His purposes -- makes you stop and think doesn't it! Before I came to this realization, I was busy using the talents, I thought I didn't have, for my own benefit. During the early years of marriage, we lived on a limited budget, so I became a do-it-yourselfer. I sewed curtains, drapes, and pillows. I took up ceramics so that I could make pretty little decorative items for our home. And then I turned to oil painting solely for the purpose of having pictures to hang on the walls. I sewed some of my own clothes, and made baby clothes, and even made diapers. Wow, can you even imagine such a thing as making diapers in today's world! Looking back, I believe that God was allowing me time to develop my talents so that they would be ready for His use in His time. Once I placed my talents in God's hands to be used as He chose, He gave me many opportunities to use them and serve Him in various church and personal ministries. I feel very blessed when God sends someone to me with a request to create something.

There's no such thing as a person without talent. We each have at least one talent that has blossomed or is waiting to be developed. Are you a good listener? Do people enjoy visiting your home? Do you like helping others in various ways? Are you a good team player? Do you like to cook and feed others? Are you happy working in the background and not receiving acknowledgment? Don't you see, there is no big or little talent in God's eyes -- they're all the same to Him. It is not the kind of talent that we have that is important, it's what we do with it that counts. God is looking for faithful one-talented servants. "Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much." Luke 16:10
I pray that you will use all your talents for God's glory and to do it God's way. Annie

Peaceful Summer Day

Just couldn't ask for a nicer day. Had mocha and a scone with a dear friend this morning at my very favorite Coffee Cabin, lunch with the sweetest hubby ever, and shortly will be going to my monthly scrapbook club. I'll be posting some new scrapbook pages in a day or two (just finished them yesterday), but today I want to share with you some pictures of my adorable great-grans, my kitty-kid, and our new little family member.

Uhmmm, let me see if I can get this right: Brody-6 yr, Kaden-5 yr, Ryder-4 yr, Kameron-4 yr, Lexie-2 1/2 yr, and baby Isaac 4 days old, YumYum-9 yr, and KoKo-12 weeks. Whew! How the Lord has blessed me.

Rejoice

The other day I was doing the dreaded task of dusting, and having come to a bookshelf holding the books I've made over the years, I just had to take a little break and look through a few of them. I was amazed at the many different styles sitting there -- altered books, CD books, a hand-shaped book, accordion books, house-shaped books, envelope books, paper sack books, tag books -- just to name a few. I guess you can tell by this time that I love to make books. Most recently I completed a book with multi-shaped chipboard pages. It's one of the Kaisercraft "Beyond the Page" album sets. You can see more book shapes at http://www/kaisercraft/net.beyond-the-page. The book is named Rejoice with each page bearing a bible scripture -- its purpose is to be a praise book to the Lord. The scrapbook paper used in this project is from Deja View, the Timeless Collection. Laying each board page on a piece of scrapbook paper, I cut around it using a craft knife; very simple to do even if you don't like craft knives. Using my favorite adhesive, Aleene's Super Quick Dry glue, I attached the scrapbook paper to the board page as I cut each one out. I know many of you like to use tape runners and there are some pretty good ones on the market. My favorite tape runner is Scotch glue tape, this stuff really holds! Forever! The book was bound with metal rings and I tied a 3-ribbon bow on each ring. Pictures of the pages are posted in the Slideshow section so you can see the rest of the book there. I pray that this little book will lift your spirit and brighten your day. Annie

Living in Faith

On occasion I'm asked what does "faith" mean to me. Dictionaries include in the meaning to put trust in, to be committed to, to place confidence in, and to rely upon. For me, as a Christian, faith is having the assurance that Christ is who He professes to be and having trust that He will do all that He promises to do. I really like how faith is explained in the book, "The Kingdom, Power, & the Glory," by Chuck and Nancy Missler, which says, "Real faith is not feeling, not seeing, not understanding, and not knowing but still choosing to trust and rely upon Him. It's being convinced that no matter what we see happening in our lives, no matter what we understand to be true, and no matter how we feel, God will be faithful to His Word and perform His promises to us in His timing and in His way!"

Isn't that beautiful? If you want God's will to become a reality in your life experience, then you must have faith. The Bible tells us, faith is "the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not yet seen."
(Hebrews 11:1).

I pray that you grow in faith day by day as you walk with the Lord, . . . Annie

Summer Days

When I think of summer, one theme that comes to mind is tropical blue water, sandy beaches, and sea shells. What I actually get is a backyard pool and sea shell patterned beach towels. Oh well, that’s OK . . . while I’m floating around on my air mattress I can pretend I’m anywhere in the world. So far, the waters of the Carribbean are my favorite. Thank you, Lord, for my imagination! This brings to mind the tapered, tri-fold sea shell card I made. Using a white 8 ½ x 11” sheet of cardstock, I made a tapered diagonal cut from the top of the 8 ½” side to the other end of the 11" length, leaving one side 8 1/2 " high and the other side about 3 1/4” high. Then fold the cardstock into thirds. Using sea shell stamps, I stamped the images all along the diagonal cut on the inside of the card. Then after turning the card over, I stamped just the middle section with stamps that matched the images other side. Next I cut out around the top of the sea shell images. Tiny little “real” shells were used for embellishment, and the card was finished off with a sentiment which I stamped, cut out the words, and then layered them onto the card. Using the basic card shape, you could use any stamp design as long as it is approximately the same shape all the way around. I think I’m going to try some flowers or leaves next, or make a child’s card using teddy bears. Ooh, now I’m excited to get on to the next one!

Folded Card

Inside of Card

Two Babies in One Day!

What a blessed and exciting day! We are proud great-grandparents of a brand new beautiful 7 lb. 10 oz. boy. Baby Isaac and mommy Mandy are doing fine -- healthy and happy for mom, -- and healthy, hungry and now sleepy for Isaac. It's hard to believe that I got to hold this precious one in my arms only 3 hours after he was born. He's our sixth great-grandchild. Children are one of God's great miracles.

And we are new parents too! A little baby girl who we named KoKo joined our family today -- a lovely blue point, half Siamese and half Himalayean, with bright blue eyes. She's 3 months old and loves to be held and cuttled. YumYum seems pretty laid back about the whole thing and seems not to mind that she has a new little sister.

Love these manila envelope books.

After taking some bookmaking classes earlier in the spring, I was so inspired that I've been in a whirlwind of bookmaking ever since. The book pages are manila envelopes and the backgrounds, elements, and embellishments were made from the Graphics 45 BotanicaBella Collection (my very fav design paper company). Also used were buttons, brads, ribbons and other delightful little pieces. Some of the embellishments were made from bits and scraps of the paper, which I love to do because it really gives me another avenue for creativity. You may not be able to notice it in the pictures, but I used mounting tape quite liberally which gave nice dimension to the pages. Here's the cover of the book . . . you can see the rest of the pages in the slideshow at right.

For the last few months I've been venturing into scrapbooking. I'd never had an urge to scrapbook until I journeyed through Israel -- plus a club that I belong to insisted that everyone must do a scrapbook page for that month's project. So now I'm finding myself looking forward to designing the next layout for my Israel pictures. But, oh my, I've not yet been able to "crop" many pictures and I really have a hard time leaving any pictures out! Another love I have is making books and I just happen to have a Zutter Binder. And while using it the other day I was hit with this brilliant (for me anyway) idea -- why don't I make a couple of mini albums on my album page. You can see the result below. By using the 1/2 " Zutter binding coils and making 2 mini albums, I was able to use 24 pictures on just one page! And . . . I was even able to print the name of the city, Modi'in, in Hebrew by finding it on an Israeli webpage. I'm just having too much fun!

A Sweet, Sweet Family

These 2 pictures are from the prayer time for Cathy on Friday. Not pictured are Mary and Emily.

After church today there was a Potluck Dinner Farewell for Casey, Cathy, Ethan, and Josiah -- I've never met a more sweet, God-loving family than this family. They will be tremendously missed by me and, of course, our whole church family. But the good thing is that God has plans for their lives and on top of that, we get to follow along in their journey via Cathy's blog "Sweeter than the Day Before." See link at right. Here's a couple of pictures from dinner today.

Gone but certainly not forgotten. We love you!!!

After viewing so many "sneak peaks" of the new products being showcased at CHA this weekend, I'm in high anticipation of them being released to retail stores. Finding a place to purchase online may be a bit of a challenge - but that may be my only option since stamping and scrapbooking supplies are disappointingly limited here. I'm expecially excited about new papers and paper pads from Graphics 45 (www.graphics45.com), and from Kaisercraft, the Duchess set and the Pennyroyale collection (www.kaisercraft.net). Soooo beautiful . . . I'm fairly bursting with creative ideas!

My first Ink-Ling! Yea!

Just spent a morning of warm fellowship and prayer at Mary's house. We gathered to pray for Cathy's and her family's relocation to Texas in order for Casey to attend seminary. It was a wonderful time of sharing stories and memories, laughing and crying, partaking of a delicious brunch, and then pouring out our hearts to God in prayer for Cathy, Casey, Ethan, and Josiah. We are all walking in faith together that our Heavenly Father will lead their way and provide for all their needs. You can follow Cathy's blog by clicking on the link to the right. Pictures will be posted soon!

In the meantime, here's a picture of the going-away card I made for Casey and gave to him during our staff lunch.