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