Vine & Branches

Jesus said, "I am the Vine, you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit, apart from me you can do nothing." John 15:5

A well-known bible verse for this week's Scripture Challenge. This verse reminds me to look up when life is looking down. Life can be hard…sometimes to the point of feeling as though your struggles will never end and God isn't anywhere near. That's when I look up and take note of every branch on my most favorite best ever tree in my front yard, pictured below with some special friends.

My stamped tree (as opposed to my real tree!) and darlin' lil' swingin' owl is from Swingin' By, Our Craft Lounge. Notice the darlin' bitty bird? In the darlin' tree? Colored with copics, then I used a sponge-dauber for the light blue sky and soft green grass. There is actually a double row of ribbon, the underlying green ruffle is on elastic - a great find from Archivers! I used the tip of a stylus to make grid lines on the paper ribbon tufts. All settled nicely onto one of my very best fav Cosmo Cricket papers! (Early bird - Apron Strings) Have a beautiful day! I hope you notice a tree!

Welcome Home

I had one more "baby" card base leftover from my last post, so I put together a Welcome Home card for my sister who will soon be returning home from the Asia, Africa, and Europe regions. Our cell phones miss each other! I'm nuts over Karen Lockhart's chair stamps because, for one thing, they offer such sweet nostalgia. This wicker chair reminds me of our front porch when I used to sit on the wicker bench while the kids waited for the school bus! And I changed the bench cushions often! So I paper-pierced a pretty pink set of "pillow cushions" for this card, and stamped a sentiment from Papertrey's Vintage Picnic Sentiments. Sweet way to use a leftover card base!

Baby Gift Set

1. My very good friend Eleanore is going to be a first-time grandma in August. Today is the baby shower so I stamped a set of baby thank you cards for the sweet mommy-to-be, Molly. Very simply cute! Sentiment says "it was so nice of you to be so nice to me" which I curved onto my glass block before stamping. Isn't Karen Lockhart's Sweet Pea stamp adorable? Vintage button and sweet blush Swiss polka dot ribbon by Papertrey.
   
   Inside of card has a matching strip of SU dessigner paper, thank you stamp is from Vintage Picnic Basket, Papertrey. Baby shoes stamp by Stampabilities, is stamped with versamark ink and I love the way it looks like a simple water-mark!
   
   
   
   Baby Bottle stamp is one of those great $1 bin finds, and it made the envelopes so stinkin' cute! Grandma Eleanore, Mommy-to-be Molly, and Aunt Kay were tickled pink with the results! I bagged the set of cards and clipped to the outside of the gift box with a decorated clip clothespin. Aren't babies fun!?
   
   
   
   

Sister & Friend

Say to wisdom "You are my sister" and call understanding your intimate friend. Proverbs 7:4

I'm really close to my sister and our phones call each other on a regular basis! So when I read this verse, I really "got it". That's what I'm saying! "You are my sister" to wisdom and "You are my intimate friend" to understanding. Now that's what I call some mighty fine soul mates! Since we are half-way through our Summer Bible Study and Scripture Challenge, I thought this was a super duper verse.

The stamped panel is a mixture of Unity April KOM (two girls) and My Cute Stamps (flowers) and did I mention how cute they look? Colored with copics, then dotted with a white inkessentials pen. I'm going dot-crazy since my pen purchase, love it! As if there were not enough polka dots, I overstamped the entire image with PT polka dot basics (a staple in life, just get it), then I roughed up the edges of my stamped strip with an edge distresser, and bordered it with a brown cardstock scalloped panel {Fiskars Running Water Edge Punch - one of my favs}. I cut some faux ribbons from matching pink cardstock for strips underneath the computer generated scripture verse, and embellished with punched flowers & buttons.


Oh my Kitty Soul - is this not darling? Looky who worked with me on this one! Hard to say who's cuter! It's so hard to parent O'Malley with that precious face! Have you ever tried gluing and punching and coloring stuff with a furball in your lap? Sigh.

Plans For You & a Bee Sting

This cute polka dot paper is My Minds Eye -- but here's what on my mind today. God has a plan for me and I'm so glad! Left to my own sweet self, I might not experience living out God's purpose for my life. His purpose is highly personalized. He has thought your life through. God thinks about you! Jeremiah 29:11 says that nothing in this life is haphazard.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

You & I have a little spin around this planet earth, and we must be extremely intentional about serving God. His purpose in each persons life is perfectly timed. You were assigned to this generation. After all the centuries have come and gone, the important thing is that we served Gods purpose in our own generation. I don't know about you, but my sweet self is all about clinging to this promise ... God has a plan man!

So ... I got stung by a bee while riding with Kevin on the motorcycle and that wasn't so fun, but my hero husband got the stinger out in 63 seconds. Thus, the cute little bee buzzing around on today's scripture card. There are SO many things I love about this card! My 86 year old momma crocheted the super cute flowers! If you "need" a few flowers and if you ask sweetly, I bet my sweet momma will indulge you. The stems (and stinging bee) are from My Cute Stamps {hint: get thee to the website, they are toooo cute to pass up). There is a row of crystal diamonds in the middle of each stem. I traced the bird from a chipboard piece, and the wing is a Hero Arts Paisley stamp. Entire card is stitched with a white inkessentials pen by Ranger. I love it when a plan comes together!

Grab a chair ...

My honey got a brand spankin' new shiny motorcycle and to make the first ride extra fun, my honey took me an hour and a half away to a fabulous stamp store called Papertrix! They have thousands of stamps (but who's counting!) and the owner, Cindy, knows me by name (okay, so I've been there a few thousand times!). But the point is, she recently had Karen Lockhart teach a class in her store and even though I wasn't able to attend, she let me in on the "deal" which was buy 10 Lockhart stamps, get 1 free, and get 10% of all of them, and (yes, there's more) ... all stamps signed by Karen Lockhart herself! So, grab a chair and let's visit my first set of cards!

I have wanted this beach chair stamp for like-ever and it did not disappoint! Karen likes to color with Prisma Colored Pencils, but I prefer Copics and boy, did I have fun with these shades! I just gathered up all my favorite Copics and went to town! The flowers are highlighted with a White Inkessentials Pen by Ranger.

Get a load of these kites on the envelopes! Flying by to say "you've got mail" - how cute is that?! {Note: the kites are from a Unity KOM}

Each Kraft card is stamped with PaperTrey's Polka Dot Basics in Fresh Snow Ink, then I chose assorted sentiments from various sources, just whatever struck my fancy. If you're interested in a particular one, just let me know! I particularly like the inside of the cards below:

Everyday has the possibility of a miracle! (Like when your honey gets a shiny new motorcycle and you get an unexpected trip to the stamp store! "R-e-l-a-x" is on the inside of the "Summer Days" card ... to remind me to enjoy the lazy hazy days of summer! I'll be sending these out to friends this week! I hope you had a beautiful Sunday!

Well-Watered Garden

The Lord will guide you always. He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Isaiah 58:11

We had a very hot spell here in Indiana this summer, and I don't do high humidity heat well. Allergies, flopped hair, and sweat (yuck!). But on the flip-side is cool watermelon, Redkin Super Strength Finishing Spray (24 hour humidity resistance), and Claritan. This past week as I was preparing for our summer scripture challenge, this verse seemed perfect. Let the Lord guide your steps this week with me and you will be like a well-watered garden!

I enjoyed making this 6x6 card to add to my scripture collection. The bird houses is a very old stamp from Stampin' Up (1997!), colored with copics to match my Cosmo Cricket paper. Once my bird houses were colored, I overstamped the entire image with Pretty Pattern Backgrounder by Cornish Heritage Farms. I LOVE all my backgrounder stamps, use them loads! The verse was computer generated, and cut with the largest Nesty from Spellbinders Labels Four. The embellishment was inspired by Mish Mash back in March when we were getting ready for Spring! I have learned to never sit idle while watching TV - busy hands are happy hands when making cute little embellishments for half the cost! Have a happy day!