I got to play for a couple hours in the studio today and it was really nice. Weekend plans include playing most of Friday & Saturday too.
Catherine Pooler Designs Stamp Nation is celebrating their 11th year as a group and there are a few challenges for members plus a whole day of events on Monday. Yay! Today I played with the sketch challenge that was posted Weds.
I used Catherine Pooler Designs Two Part Hearts & Hello Amazing stamp sets with Through The Woods patterned paper to create this card along with a variety of my CP inks.
I’ve been a member forever but haven’t participated as much as I could so I am hoping to pop into Stamp Nation more this year to play.
I hope you have some creative plans this weekend. It’s always a great way to relax & unwind.
Welcome to 2022 and my newest project For Others Creations. I am still working out the details and should have more information in the next couple of days.
I have just a couple of projects left to share from 2021 including this 20th anniversary card for my oldest daughter and her husband. We were quite busy with our granddaughters while they stole away for a 5 day anniversary trip and hubby was off for 2 weeks so I enjoyed our holiday break.
I wanted to keep this card classic & elegant so I used Simon Says Stamp’s Detail Pincushion Plate for the background on brushed gold with the numbers cut from black glitter paper and the anniversary die cut word on a black pearl strip.
Now the fun part of the post for me. As most of you know I celebrated turning 60 years old in 2021 and starting moving toward not teaching classes to a year just for me. Here’s the tally of the fun of my birthday year.
I participated in 10 online events & retreats as well as 8 or so online classes, plus I attended 2 local retreats with the Angels!
I created somewhere in the neighborhood of
315 cards
17 Bible journaling pages & 7 faithdex cards
6 mini books/albums and 1 large gift album for a friends birthday
1 full size wall art piece for our master bedroom
plus 4 ATC’s, 1 calendar, 1 snowlady wood piece, 4 ornaments, finished spring and summer in my 12 x 12 wall art series and about 10 projects that need finished.
That’s over 350 art projects created in 2021. Stay tuned, 2022 is just getting revved up!
Thanks for stopping by my humble blog.
Wishing you many blessings, much joy and a bright & beautiful New Year ahead!
I was planning to make a quick card tonight but we had an impromptu Bible Journaling session over on the Creative Worship group so I worked on Bible Journaling tonight.
We journaled Psalm 130 the focus verse was 7.
Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with Him is full redemption. NIV
I also worked off verse 5 & 8 for my sentiment. I used Distress Oxides in Dusty Concord & Rustic Wilderness for the background including gold splatters. I used Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps Thirsty Soul and Words of Life: Actions along with an old wood mounted stamp for the flourish.
It’s been a rough couple weeks dealing with a severe asthma flare, however I’m finally feeling much better. Not much creating when it’s a big struggle to get through each day and I’m more than ready to dive into some creative fun!
Today I’ll be starting my Gloriously 60 days of art showcasing as many different ideas & techniques as I can over the next 60 days. I have lots of new goodies to play with & lots of ideas written down.
I’ll be also be searching for opportunities to share extra blessings the next 60 days although I probably won’t highlight all of those. Some blessings are better when given quietly.
I hope you’ll find lots of inspiration & encouragement throughout the next 60 days.
Bonus-I’m putting together a small prize package of goodies for the person who comments the most over the next 60 days on my blog, MeWe & Facebook.
I didn’t disappear. Last week I was sorting, organizing & packing for a week long retreat with the Angels and this week we have been quietly creating & taking a bit of a media break.
Yesterday a couple of us ran to town for burgers & fries, which was actually a ploy to get me out of the retreat house so they could surprise me with a birthday party.
Here are a few photos.
Pam, Tricia, Me, Sue, Finnegan the Frog & Tina
Yummy Gluten Free birthday cake
A cute little plant
Lots of butterflies, pretty paper and a handmade album to decorate, wonderful presents.
A peek at the handmade album.
Totally surprised for my birthday. Fun, laughter, relaxing, creating & more on retreat this week.
May your year be filled with the wonder of God’s blessings, joy and lots of creative inspiration.
I am going to be switching things up for 2021.
I am celebrating my birthday all year long as I turn Glorious 60!
The SASS Studio has already been reset into more of a personal work space including a lounging area to watch my favorite Hallmark movies or reading a good book.
I am officially on sabbatical from regular teaching and Cards for the Troops. There will still be a class here & there as well as studio play days. The schedule will be entirely on a whim, nothing set in stone. I will still be doing some local charity work at the Salvation Army & Feed His Sheep as well as finding a few more local places that would like cards of encouragement.
We also have some house projects in the works. A little refreshing & remodeling along with more purging & organizing.
Don’t worry there will be plenty of art to inspire and perhaps I’ll be diving back into videos.
I was planning on this post a couple of days ago but I’ve had a couple of migraines.
The Holiday/Christmas shipment of cards to the troops is officially complete.
I sent 2 shipments out Oct. 30th and Nov. 6th of 9 boxes containing 2965 cards. One box was holiday thank-you’s for care packages they receive and one box was Christmas cards which have to be distributed by the chaplain at services since we have a restriction on “religious” cards. The remaining 7 boxes had a large variety of happy holiday type greetings.
Here are some samples of cards made by several members of the Let’s Make Cards group, who whole-heartedly support this endeavor. Many, many thanks!
And here are the photos of all the cards ready to mail.
Our next shipment of cards for the Troops will be Valentine’s, then back to everyday cards.
In the meantime, work has begun on the holiday cards for our other 2 charities, the Angel Tree program for our local Salvation Army and Feed His Sheep a local homeless ministry.
It is a true blessing to have so many who support our military and be able to send so many cards to support our unit.
I have been working hard getting the fall shipment ready of Troop cards. The fall shipment includes fall themed cards in no sentiments, thank-yous, happy fall and Thanksgiving cards.
The AngelS & I have been processing cards as they come in & today I finished the last few that arrived while we were on retreat. There are 3 boxes heading out containing 1012 cards!
With an average of 2600 cards coming in each month, we stay pretty busy processing cards. It should taper off a bit with the last of our holiday push on the horizon. This picture is just part of the cards ready to go. There are already 6 boxes packed for the winter holidays plus everyday cards. The 2 priority boxes are already being filled with the next batch of holiday cards.
I am so glad hubby had me get the bankers boxes as I was running out of containers for all the cards!
Cards for the Troops is purely a labor of love. Being retired military & having lived through years of deployments, I know how exciting it is to receive a piece of mail from your loved one when they are gone. The holidays are extra special and this year we will be able to send quite a few to help our service members stay in touch.
The AngelS & I are blessed so many card makers around the country are participating in this important ministry. They have the joy of making the cards, the Troops know we are thinking of them & their families, and the families are thrilled to hear from their loved ones via old fashioned snail mail.
I knew as soon as I saw the patriotic printables from His Palette that I wanted to do a 4th of July Bible Journaling page. While designing it turned into a full 2 page spread in my new Art Journal dedicated to Bible Journaling.
We may be a retired Air Force family, but we will always work in service for our country. That is one of the reasons Cards for the Troops is such a labor of love for me. I understand a lot of what the families go through when separated from their loved ones. My husband still works in the aerospace industry supporting our military.
With all the unrest lately in our country, I choose God Bless America for my first page with 2 Chronicles 7:14 as the focal verse. “If my people, who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” Our great country needs a lot of prayer, kindness & love right now.
For my 2nd page I focused on being an American & serving our country. John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”; and the chorus from Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the USA.
Both pages feature distress oxides & stenciled stars, the Freedom & Sacrifice Printables from His Palette and Allie Scraps Pocket Prayers Stars & Stripes with hand lettered verses. God Bless America & God Bless the USA are just printed from internet images.
May your holiday weekend be full of blessings and the reminder that we live in a great country.
It has certainly been a strange 2020 so far. All my plans to keep up with my blog kind of went right out the window. So I am looking at a new approach for the rest of 2020. A blog of encouragement, maybe some advice to new cardmakers, Cards for Troops updates, Bible Journaling, just a big mix with an over laying theme of kindness & encouragement.
One of the biggest things the virus quarantine brought to attention was how much people have been loving getting cards in the mail. Snail mail is not gone my friends & I think we have the perfect opportunity to bring smiles to those in our circles of influence by sending out lots of cards. Especially if you can find a care or nursing facility where the residents still have to be very careful.
I am one of the moderators over on the Let’s Make Card group on Facebook. Not only are they huge supporters of getting cards to the Troop unit we mail to, there are a lot of brand new stampers and cardmakers discovering the joy of creating cards & bringing smiles. I have learned a lot over the years & I think some tips for new cardmakers might just be a good thing to revisit.
One of the key components of my life is my faith journey. I have spent a lot more time the past couple of months Bible Journaling and I love it. I also have had the opportunity to provide some encouragement cards to the Salvation Army & send out some happy mail. I think right now in our current climate, focusing on kindness & encouragement is a critical key to helping our neighbors. Together we are stronger and we are especially stronger when we are united in God’s love to reach out to a hurting world.
I really enjoy my time over on the Creative Worship Bible Journaling group on Facebook. A couple of times a month, they have a PJ Party. This week we had a mixed media lesson. I have been wanting to add an art journal to my Bible Journaling and this week’s PJ party was perfect. My lettering is a bit rough but overall I really like how this piece came out. God is good, loves us so much & is always faithful. It is a joy to praise Him & give thanks.
This page has a gesso base with Distress Oxides layered over. The cathedral window is a stencil as well as the texture paste corners at the top. There are some stamps added in for some more texture. Verse is handlettered in Micron pens & paint marker.
