Pure: Philippians 4:8

Sunday already! If so then it is time once again for a challenge from Stampin' Sisters in Christ. Today (Saturday) we woke up to wonderful slightly cooler weather. We then went to the soccer games of 2 of our grandchildren - it was delightful. What blessings grandchildren are! 

Today our challenge hostess is Linda and the scripture she chose is Philippians 4:8

"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."

I am having a difficult time this week wrapping my head around the scripture. Does that ever happen to you? I love what it says but my mind is cluttered with some difficult things and at those times sharing on all the wonderful words in the scripture, like those above is, is a struggle. My heart is troubled and I believe that Linda chose this so that I could get beyond my troubled heart, let go of the difficulties that I have no control over anyway, and look at the pure and honest and lovely - like watching my grandchildren at the soccer field today. Let go and let God.... that has to be my mantra right now. 

The challenge this week is to make a card using all white or cream - monochrome in pure tones. I really had a hard time with that too! Guess I just had a hard week....  I made a loss card - sometimes loss is not just in death - loss of a relationship can be just as painful. I made this card for someone with that kind of loss.

Be sure to stop by my SSIC design sisters to see what they have to share this week:

Chris Olsen: Twinkles Glow With Stamps

Grace Nywening: Th-INK-ing of You

Linda Lucas: Lovely Linda's Craft Central

Lisa Hjulberg: The Craft's Meow
Patti J Gilliam: Cherish Each Precious Day

Peggysue Turner: Roses By My Window

Rebekka Reed: Diamond in the Rough
Cindy Coutts: Cindy Coutts Designs
Randi Barret: A New Creation - (on Break)

Thanks for stopping by - Let Go and Let God! 

Recipe:

Stamps: By Your Side and Fanciful Tags from Gina K Designs

Paper: GinaK Pure Luxury White

Other: Some pearls, Nestabilities, distress inks, ribbon 

Other Challenges:

Card Patterns - sketch
Our Daily Bread Designs - Top 3 challenges - Punches/Dies
Simon Says Stamps - Punches
Spoonful of Sugar - Punches

Cameo

My mail lady was nice to me this week! She gave me a delivery from Layers of Color (the stencil) and another order with some ribbon and Copics. Oh happy day.  I made this card for the StampTV Color challenge - that Janice sure does come up with great creative challenges! I also made it for Card Patterns Sketch challenge. Just a quick post tonight - I have stamping to do!!! :-) 

Thanks for the quick visit! Have a day filled with blessings!

Recipe:
Stamps: Timeless Treasures - Gina K Designs
Paper: Pure Luxury Green Apple and Black
Special Paper: Used the stencil from Layers of Color and sponged it with distress ink.
Other: black ribbon and button
Challenges:
Stamp TV: Color challenge
Card Patterns: Sketch Challenge 
Tip Top Tuesday: Anything Goes 
CES Challenges: Buttons and bows 

Faith: Psalm 73:26

Happy Sunday and another challenge from Stampin' Sisters in Christ. This has been a busy weekend, then again it has been a busy several weeks! So much to always be thankful for - not the least of these being good health.

Today our challenge hostess is Chris and the scripture she chose is Psalm 73:26

"My health may fail, my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; He is mine forever."

The month of October has a lot of pink and this week's challenge is the same. We were asked to use a pink ribbon or use a lot of pink. I always make a card similar to this once a year for a friend and co-worker of mine who is a breast cancer survivor for 5 years now. She has had several set-backs including finding cancer in her brain which has also been put on hold. Through it all she is at work, teaching her students, every day with a smile on her face and hope in her heart! I made this card for her, my friend Karen. She is not the only one, there are others who have had the word "cancer" become a word that they wake up with every morning, my friend Dana, my sister-in-law Betsy, my friend Randi, 2 friends from church Pete and Kevin.

They all have something else in common - they have an incredible faith and an incredible trust in God! They have wonderfully sunny dispositions and they ALWAYS dwell on the positive. God is the strength of their hearts! To them and all the others - I dedicate this card to you!

Be sure to stop by my SSIC design sisters to see what they have to share this week:

Chris Olsen: Twinkles Glow With Stamps

Grace Nywening: Th-INK-ing of You

Linda Lucas: Lovely Linda's Craft Central

Lisa Hjulberg: The Craft's Meow
Patti J Gilliam: Cherish Each Precious Day

Peggysue Turner: Roses By My Window

Rebekka Reed: Diamond in the Rough
Cindy Coutts: Cindy Coutts Designs
Randi Barret: A New Creation - (on Break)

Thanks for stopping by - pray for someone today.

Recipe:

Stamps: Lacie - The Lollipop Shop

Paper: SU Pinks - GinaK Pure Luxury Ivory
Specialty paper: Digi paper from GinaK

Other: Some pearls and Nestabilities 

Other Challenges:
Pear Tree Designs: Anything Goes

 Mark's Finest Paper: Use a die or punch
Stamp Insanity: Use pink
Hodge Podge: Monochromatic - all pinks 

CSS CAS Blog Hop

My goodness - 2 blog hops for me in as many days! This has been fun if a bit of a "challenge"! I have to let you know that CAS cards are the most difficult for me to make - I always want to add just one or tow more things. But - here it is, a CAS (Clean and Simple) blog hop. The challenge was to create a card with these requirements:

• One image
• One sentiment
• One layer card - card base plus only one more layer
• Embellishments - as many as you want but all the same color

You should have arrived from Melissa Schultz blog and I am quite sure that she shared another incredible creation. If you want to start at the beginning just head on over to the home page of StampTV.

I used Tami's Faithful Florals for this card.  The card base is Pure Luxury In The Navy and the white embossed layer was sent to me by the wonderfully talented and generous Karen Knegten. I used Distress Inks - Faded Jeans and Tumbled Glass for the flowers with a brush and then just Copic B37 to give it a little definition. I used a green marker for the stems. A little blue ribbon and that is it - CAS!


Now hop on over to visit Shannon Hawkins for what I am sure will be another amazing card. I sure am glad you stopped by and for leaving a comment! Have a great weekend! 

Thank You Blog Hop!

Oh we have a fun blog hop for you tonight and I had a great time making all of these cards on one day last Sunday!

Tonight we are having a special blog hop to thank our recently retired StampTV Challenge Hostess Team members: Carla Suto , Melissa Shultz, Brenda Turner, Linda Payne, Giovana Smith

These 5 designers have provided StampTV with a challenge each week during the months of June, July and August.

Carla Suto 

Her color challenges were amazing! The challenge of hers that I chose to showcase was her first one - brown, green and ivory. See her original challenge card here! Thank you Carla - loved all of your challenges!

Stamps: Fanciful Fall

Card Stock: Pure Luxury Chocolate Brown, Fresh Asparagus, Ivory

Specialty Paper: Basic Grey Cappella

Melissa Shultz

I just love Sketch Challenges and Melissa's were wonderful! Some were tricky and some were not. The one I chose to emulate was her 6th challenge. Here is the link to her sample card.

Stamps: A year of leaves and Fanciful Fall

Card Stock: Pure Luxury Pumpkin Spice, Ivory

Specialty Paper: Cloud Nine - Harvest Holiday

Brenda Turner

The creative Brenda came up with several very challenging challenges! These were probably the most difficult for me although I think I did enter most of them. She found such beautiful ideas for the challenge but the one I CASED for this hop is her 13th one and chose to use the colors. Here is the original challenge.

Stamps: Buds and Vases, A year of flowers

Card Stock: Brown from stash

Specialty Paper: Not sure where that came from, it was in my "fall" box.

Linda Payne

I loved the Blast from the Past challenges and Linda picked some fantastic ones! The one I chose was her 4th which was to use a bow and old button. See the link here.

Stamps: Winter Wings

Card Stock: Pure Luxury Cranberry Tart, Fresh Asparagus

Specialty Paper: Cloud Nine Harvest Holiday

Giovana Smith

Now when I first heard that we were to make Christmas cards I must admit that I was not thrilled. I was just getting ready to start my summer vacation and did NOT want to think Christmas - BUT - here it is getting close to November and I am soooo glad that I made Christmas cards this summer! I decided to thank Giovana by following her 10th challenge which was to use punches/dies. Check out her fantastic sample!

Stamps: Lovely Labels 2 and Blessed is the Season 

Card Stock: Pure Luxury All Spruced Up and Good as Gold

Specialty Paper: Basic Grey Jovial

We have a special StampTV Challenge Magazine Volume 3* located on the Freebie Tab, where all of their challenges are shared in a download PDF that you can save to your computer and print out at your leisure!

Now be sure to hop on over to see Karen's thank you creations!

Please join in our Thank You Discussion on Stamp TV and feel free to play along and say thank you with your own take on one of their challenges!!!

Have a great evening!

Pray: Matthew 6:9-13

Happy Sunday and another challenge from Stampin' Sisters in Christ. We finally got a little taste of slightly cooler air and it is wonderful! The windows are finally opened for the first time since May! Thank you God! 

Today our challenge hostess is our amazing Lisa and the scripture she chose is from Matthew and one that we all know so well.

Matthew 6: 9-13 "This, then, is how you should pray: 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.'

I do believe that we do all now the Lord's prayer. We say it at every mass. Let me ask you a question - how often do you talk to the people you love? Your spouse, your children, your sisters and brothers, or adult children? Probably every day or even several times a day! Do we talk to God that often? Do you think maybe we should? Relationships need communications and our relationship with God does too. So often we can go along just fine until something happens in our lives that knocks us to our knees and then we pray! Or we say the prayers we know so well without really thinking of the words and what they mean. We need to make time for daily prayer, make it a priority in our life.

I made this card for someone who is in great need for prayer - someone who was knocked to his knees. These stamps are from ODBD and I used the cracked glass technique to age the image and the words a bit.

Be sure to stop by my SSIC design sisters to see what they have to share this week:

Chris Olsen: Twinkles Glow With Stamps

Grace Nywening: Th-INK-ing of You

Linda Lucas: Lovely Linda's Craft Central

Lisa Hjulberg: The Craft's Meow
Patti J Gilliam: Cherish Each Precious Day

Peggysue Turner: Roses By My Window

Rebekka Reed: Diamond in the Rough

Thanks for stopping by - remember - daily prayer!

Recipe:

Stamps: ODBD - Lift up your hands and Pray

Paper: SU Chocolate and Rust
Specialty paper: Cosmo Cricket - Earth Love

Other: Flourish punch and some pearls and Nestablitily border punch

Other Challenges:
Our Daily Bread Designs: Anything Goes

 

Magic Day

I decided to make a Halloween card this weekend. I have a couple of really fun paper packs and this spider paper was in it. I just had to use it. The cute image is from Alicia (Gina's daughter) and was fun to color. I just used the top portion of the image and stamped the hat twice to pop it up a little. The pumpkins I stamped on a glittery paper and colored it which made it look a little brighter. I have no idea where I got the pumpkin brads for the corners.

This card is for a color challenge on StampTV and the sketch layout is from CardPatterns.  

Thanks for the quick visit! Have a day filled with blessings!

Recipe:
Stamps: Feel the Magic - Gina K Designs
Paper: SU Basic Gray and Pumpkin Pie
Special Paper: Basic Grey eerie
Other:Pumpkin brads - ribbon 
Challenges:
Stamp TV: Color challenge
Card Patterns: Sketch Challenge 
Simon Says Challenge: Halloween

Thank You God - 1 Timothy 4:4

Thank you God! How often do we remember to thank God for the little things, the farmers who grow our food, the weather (both rain and sun), the smiles of a stranger, the hug from a loved one. The day is filled with the wonderful gifts from God. Thanks also for another wonderful Sunday and a new scripture message from Stampin' Sisters in Christ.

Today our wonderful newest design sister is our challenge hostess and had this wonderful verse for all of us to work with from 1st Timothy 4:4.

"For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving."

Today I did remember to thank God for a morning of watching 2 of my grandsons play in a football game while I sat with my daughters and granddaughter. Then I again remembered to thank God for sitting at mass tonight with another granddaughter and daughter-in-law while another granddaughter sang a solo. There was a pot-luck dinner after the service that my sister (the children choir director) organized - thank you God! What blessings I have in my life. (to see my blessings check out the "All about me" page at the top of this blog). 

This card was just fun to make. It is a new stamp set that I just got called "Funny Farm". Such fun! I sponged the grass and the sky and used Copics to color the rest. I popped up the farm girl and the sheep. Just a fun card this time. The challenge for you is to make a thank you card!


Thanks for stopping by - I do thank God for all of you too! 

Recipe:
Stamps: Funny Farm - Gina K
Paper: Gina K Pure Luxury white and liptstick red
Other: Ribbon from GinaK - Copics to color
Other Challenges:
Stamps R Us: Nature
Pollycraft Monday: Anything Goes 

CSS Sketch Blog Hop

I cannot believe that I have not uploaded anything since last Sunday - it has been a busy week but I am back! Yesterday my GinaK box arrived and I could not wait to ink up some rubber; this blog hop and these stamps were the first to get inked up. 

I am so glad that it came in time for the StampTV Center Stage Alumni blog hop. You should have come from Melissa Schultz blog and I am quite sure that she shared another incredible creation. If you want to start at the beginning just head on over to the home page of StampTV.

I used Melanie's Buds and Vases for this card. I love this set and even though I it was a lot of cutting I do like the way it turned out. I used Gina's Pure Luxury Ivory and Turquoise Sea. The DP was from DCWV called Linen Closet. I also used that for the pot. I was sent some of that lace and loved that little extra on this card. I used Copics to color the flowers and added some small gold pearls to the center of the flowers. The sentiment was from Fanciful Fall.

Now hop on over to visit Shannon Hawkins for some more fun with this sketch. I sure am glad you stopped by and for leaving a comment! Have a great weekend! 

Sing - Genesis 1:1

Good to see you again. I hope you all had a peace filled week! It is once again time for the Stampin Sisters in Christ challenge. I have to take a moment to thank you for your wonderful comments last week. It really means a lot to all of us, especially when it is our turn to come up with the scripture and the challenge. So thank you!


This week the wonderful Rebekka is our hostess. She always has such amazing insight and shares with gentleness. Be sure to check out her reflection on the Stampin Sisters in Christ website. I will try not to repeat myself here. The scripture this week is taken from the book of Genesis 1:1:

"In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth."

Okay, I have to honest here and really did not know where I was going to go with this verse as far as a personal sharing goes. Then it came to me - amazingly at Mass tonight. My husband is the cantor at the Saturday night masses and I am a lector (scripture reader) and a minister of the Eucharist. One of the songs that we sang tonight was "Canticle of the Sun". The refrain goes like this (be thankful you can NOT hear me sing!) "The Heavens are telling the glory of God, and all creation is shouting for joy. Come, dance in the forest, come play in the field,, and sing, sing to the glory of the Lord." WOW - how wonderful is that! How often do we just stop and SING, SING to the glory of the Lord! I love it - sing with me dear friends!


For the challenge this week Rebekka asks that we create a nature card or project, using anything pertaining to nature, birds, trees, flowers, mountains,  the sky is the limit.

I chose to use 2 stamps sets from Nina Bracket since she is our sponsor this week. I urge you to check out her website Crafting in Croatia, she is amazingly talented and works tirelessly for the Lord. She is an inspiration to me and many others!

Grace, Chris, Rebekka, Linda, Patti, Peggysue, and Lisa
 
Have a great week and I look forward to reading your reflections and seeing your creations!

Sing Glory to the Lord this week!

Recipe:
Stamps: Hugs and Prayers and Vintage Borders sold by GinaK Designs
Paper: Gina K Pure Luxury In the Navy and Fresh Asparagus
Special Paper: Basic Grey - Oliver
Other: Flourish punch, half pearls, Copics to color
Challenges:
StampTV: Monday Color Challenge
Midnight Madness: Sketch Challenge