LOC Easter Blessing & Some Exciting News

Happy Easter to you all!! What an exciting day for me, firstly it is Good Friday, which is such an important day in our history, as a Christian I reflect on HIS-story and all that it means to me.  It is also Faith Art Friday at Layers of Color and how fitting that we should be contemplating all that this day holds!

Of course I just had to use the Gothic Crosses - especially this old rustic one which got me thinking about what it symbolises,  So often we look at the cross and we celebrate the cross and the wonder of it all, but it reality the cross is a symbol, it is actually what took place on the cross - one of the greatest conflicts was fought on the cross and put to death and that was death itself...and the atoning blood still holds power today for sin to be washed away!!

There is no value that we can put on either the cross or the blood of Jesus, infact there is nothing we can do to earn it, I remember a song that I loved when I was a young Christian and it says that is we had all the riches the world had to give and gave them all away, even to some genuinely needy person, it still would not be enough to buy one splinter of tree Jesus died on or to buy one single drop of blood that was shed for our salvation!  This is a reality check for me, when in this day and age we seem to be able to buy anything and everything - no amount of money can buy us God's free gift of eternal life, through His Son Jesus! 

Why the fruit you ask, I know this is not the usual image for Easter, but in the Book of James, we are told that we are the 'first fruit' of all creation and I wanted this to symblose laying it all down at the foot of the cross, something  that I need to do daily!  This image from the 'Fruitful Harvest' art stamp set was perfect to convey this, it also represents that we have been purchased by the Blood of Jesus and that the only thing required of us is to bear the fruits of repentanece to receive full salvation!  I have kept this card simple as the message speaks for itself!  As a lot of the world has a public holiday and buys up chocolate by the kilos - I have taken the healthy alternative and chosen fruit!! LOL!  But seriously...what better time to reflect about this side of the Cross - I will certainly be celebrating on Sunday as we celebrate the fact that He is Risen - there was so much achieved inbetween!!

Have a great Easter and I hope you are able to reflect on the true meaning of Easter and to celebrate the gift we have all been given!

...and now for my news.....

Last, but in no way least, I am so thrilled to be able to FINALLY announce that I have been asked to be on the 'Stampin' Sisters in Christ' Design Team!   I was thrilled when I received the email and have had to contain my excitement for what feels like foreva!! LOL!  It would be no surprise for those of you who visit me regularly, to know that I am passionate about Faith Based challenges and I am honoured to be part of this great Team.  Today three new designers are being announced and it is exciting for me to be starting along side my very dear friends and Sister's Grace and Chris - along with the other Designers!!  Our first official challenge is on Easter Sunday and I am excited and ready to go - we would love to see you there!!   Thank you Lisa, Kristine and Kathy for this opportunity, I LOVE this challenge and love being part of the Team!  God bless you girls!!

Thank you for looking and for your encouragement, you are all so very kind, you both inspire and motivate me, I love to see that you have been and taken the time to comment - you make my day brighter!!  Happy Easter to you all!  God bless you!

{{{hugs}}}

Her Royal Highness - Sistah Pat!!

Hello everyone - this is a quick post today with one very late card in honour of my very dear friend and Sistah Pat Smethers.  Pat has been chosen to be "Queen for a Day' on SCS, this is a fun challenge that has been started by the lovely Anne Ryan and it is honouring stampers who encourage with their comments and are generally lovely - we know that is almost every stamper on SCS, but they can only be showcased one at a time! LOL!

I love Pat's cards and am blessed to have a number of them in my home, they are gorgeous and so hard to case - I finally chose this one... I love the elegance of  Pat's card and all that gorgeous white embossing - I am not sure what happens when I do it but - I don't like it - the white calls me and calls me until I have to obey it's call of 'fill me...'

I did stay true to your card Pat, although I used a Layers of Color art stamp set - Merci Bouquet  I coloured with SU Chalks and then painted on some Pearl Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, on the leaves - spraying would have been too much - I do love the Glimmer Mists and need to use them more!  These flowers are divine and so easy to colour - they certainly make a quick card is that is what you are wanting!

The only thing I changed was the fact that I added the Vintage Corners - I could not help myself, I was tempted to photograph it and then add them, but I thought no - I will do the right thing and show you the proper card!

Pat, what a fitting choice you are for Queen for a Day - you are such a darling to us all. Your big heart just brings you alongside the new ones in the galleries and you make us all feel so loved! I love your 'Ai Yi Yi's' and your 'Oh Sistah's' you are a loving heart and such a shining light with your faith - you Pat, are one of those people who don't just 'talk the talk' but you 'walk the walk!' When I grow up I want to be Pat Smethers, stamper, sister, Twisted Sister and friend!!

Pat, if we don't meet in this lifetime, we certainly will in the next - now...remember I will be the one with the Cuttlebug - you bring the folders and the Dies!! LOL! I hope I am sitting at the same table as you at the 'Banquet!' Love you my friend and sistah, I am so blessed that you linked arms with me! LYMIMIMIMIMI IRL!!! {{{hugs}}}

Thank you for looking and taking the time to comment - you always make my day!  I hope you are having a great day, it is Thursday afternoon here and we are getting ready to celebrate Easter - such an important time in the history of mankind!  I will be back tomorrow with an Easter card to share and ....ssshhh...come closer...a little but of news to share with you...got you wondering - well....make sure you come back - you know I would love to see you!  God bless you!

{{{hugs}}}

LOC Three French Hens...

We are counting down for Christmas and over at Layer of Color we are celebrating with 3 French Hens and what better set to use than one of the New Release sets 'Arise and Shine'!

The DP has been embossed with the Victoria Embossing Folder - it is one of my favourites, when I think about it, I use my Cuttlebug every day - I would be lost without it! I love the texture it adds to a card instantly!  Scalloped gems have been  added to the top of the DP, with red nail bling in the centre of each scallop.

The chickens were stamped and two of them were cut around, the other one has been cut out with a scalloped circle punch.  The chickens have been coloured with Chalks.  I also stamped and Urn from Her Majesty's Urns, this has been cut out and played under the chicken in the scalloped circle!  The other two chickens have been popped up on dimensionals and placed near the urn!  You can see the added dimension in ths close up.

Black lace has been threaded through a Pearl buckle, or slider, as many of you call them, the sentiment has been cut out with a Fiskars punch and sponged around the edges.  It has also been attached near the buckle, with a dimensional added at then end to keep it even and give it the 'zing' it needs!

This card is for the Pile It On Challenge which is about Flourishes and Flowers - the flourishes are all over the backgound in the embossing and the flowers are around the chickens necks.

The Pink Elephant Challenge is 'Colour Me Wonderful' using your favourite technique - we all know that chalking is mine - followed closely by embossing!!

Thank you for looking, I enjoy reading your comments and knowing that you have visited, you are so encouraging!  God bless you!

LOC Let Your Love Shine

It is our Wedding Anniversary tomorrow 18 years on October 18 and I have made this card for my DH...I have had to post it late in the evening after he has gone to bed as I didn't want him to see it.

 I used the Layers of Color sets Fleur Heart and Gothic Crosses.  The Fleur Heart was embossed with white embossing powder onto DP, the then sponged it with three different colour inks ranging from a mustard to dark brown.  I tore round the edges in a square and then sponged them until they were quite dark.

The top DP has been embossed with the Victoria EF and sponged around the edges with Distressing Ink.  The lower DP has been torn along the top edge and sponged.  These have been mounted onto creme CS.  The crosses from Gothic Crosses have been cut out with a circle punch and then coloured with chalks, adding some highlights with a Gold Gel Pen and then Kindy Glitz is lightly added to the leaves and circle - it has also been added to the emboss resist Fleur heart.  The circles have been popped up on Dimensionals.  Dew Drops have finished off the card.

This card is for the Stampin' for the Weekend Challenge which is now back after having to take a break for unexpected reasons - so hop on over there are show them some support - they are a great group of girls who bring us a fabulous challenge each week!!

I am excited to be able to share with you that Layers of Color is releasing 9 new sets of stamps very soon - and they are having their first Release Party - get your diaries out and mark it in - November 14 and 15.  It is so exciting - You know I love their stamps and find them such a pleasure to work with - these new sets will compliment the already exisiting ones, which is even better - so...keep watching this space and check back at Layers of Color between now and then!!

I am going to be working hard on cards for the Release Party, along with the other DT's, (it's a tough job but somebodies got to do it! LOL!) so please bear with me if my posts are not quite as regular...I will be doing my best to do work you can see, but may not be able to post each day - we will see - you know me - complusive!! LOL!

Thank you for stopping by and for your lovely comments - I love reading them and knowing that you have visited me.  God bless you!

LOC Deepest Sympathy

Let's pretend it is last Friday and I am on time for my Twisted Sister Challenge....okay I am in denial but am having a lovely time here - you can join me sometime. The way I see it, it is a nice place to visit but just don't stay there too long! LOL!

We were to make a Sympathy card and from what I can remember it had to have a punch, ribbon and brads...so I think I have covered it all! Sympathy cards are not the easiest to make, I find I want them to be respectful but also want them to celebrate the life that is no longer here and to bring hope and comfort to those grieving the loss of their loved one!

What better stamps to reach for than the Layer of Color set Gothic Crosses. This is a personal favourite of mine, there are so many opportunities to use it, apart from Sympathy cards!! I have inked the cross with distressing inks and layered it onto the distressed flourish from the Nature Walk set, using dimensionals.

The DP has been embossed through the Cuttlebug, I love the effect of embossed DP - it adds so much texture and depth - and we love that don't we!! All edges of the DP have been sponged with distressing inks, including the Nestie Tag that I have stamped with a PTI sentiment and threaded gold chiffon through and then threaded a small flourish from the Old World Flourish set into the ribbon slot and popped the rest up on dimensionals. Dew Drops which were part of a RAK from one of my Twisted Sisters Peggy (aka Marilyn Prestonn) have been added above the tag.

I finished off my placing a strip of torn and inked DP to the top and adding nail bling onto this - I love the effect of nail bling. It adds to the look without screaming 'look at me!'

This also qualifies for the Die cut Dreams Challenge where ribbons and trims are required!!

Plus Our Creative Corner where it is all monochromatic.

It also fits the Limited Supplies Challenge for S.O.S

S = Sponging

O = Round Dew Drop or Nail Bling

S = Sympathy

Thank you for visiting and for your comments, you are so encouraging and I love seeing you have been! You add so much to my day! It is Monday here and the school holidays...our girls have friends over for their FIRST Sleep Over and are so excited, my DS has gone to a friends to get away from all of the PINK!! LOL! Have a great week! God bless you!

Making It Count

This weeks Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge has come around so quickly - have you been and had a look yet!? They have such amazing things happening - you just have to have a look for yourself...c'mon move in a little closer now and read about it here!!

As I looked at the sketch I realised that all does not have to be as it first seems - this fabulous clock is from Tattered Angels and perfect with that fabulous arm! I could not resist inking up this baby for the first time! But before that I layered some embossed DP onto Choc Chip CS - I have to add here that the embossing was done by my sister Debbie, who has developed a passion for the Cuttlebug since arriving here!! This is my new embossing folder - Victoria - don't you just love it , I picked it up at Cold Creek Village earlier this week - I am more than thrilled with the way it looks and can see I will be using it more than once - LOL!!

The image has been stamped in black EP and then cut out. I sprayed the arm of the clock with Tattered Angel Glimmer Mist - Tattered Leather, to give it a metallic sheen. The clock has also been embossed and then lightly coloured with Chalks. I have also inked around the edges of the clock and added gold highlights with a Gold Glitter Pen. This has then been popped up onto foam dots - I love the dimension this brings! The hands have been stamped separately and glued on. For a bit of interest I have added nail bling in between the numbers and also used Dimensional Magic on the smaller face inside the clock..

The sentiment has been cut with A Windows Slot Punch and distressed - I only wanted one line of the sentiment, so I carefully just inked the lower line of the stamp - sounds easier than it is, but it worked out well! As a finishing touch I stamped the cherub and cut it out, chalked it and added some Distressed Stickles and popped it up onto the arm of the clock. Last night I could not work out what it needed on the top corner, DH took one look and suggested a cherub...he was right, plus suggested a flourish on the clock...which I did too - just as well he has a good eye for these things!

So there you have it - my Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge for this week...how many of you noticed that I made the time 2 minutes to midnight, as I am just making the deadline with this one - LOL!!

Thank you for visiting - you make my day, especially when you leave a comment - I love knowing you have been! I hope you are having a great weekend - I had a SU Workshop today and made 2 amazing cards, which I will post over the next few days...you gotta love stamping! LOL! God bless you!

Pssst - if you haven't been there before, now is the time to check out Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge - they are part of a Blog Hop and this week Priscilla is announcing a HUGE Blog Candy and also the Guest Design Team Member for this month - there is always something exciting happening there - you will kick yourself if you miss it!