Thursday, April 30, 2009

May flowers - Challenge Hero Arts

Hi to everybody! It has seemed such a long while since I posted - I have been so tired and felt drained this week - not to mention having no inspiration. I have had a new computer installed lucky for me, which will spare me alot of time and frustration!
We had a blessed weekend in Brittany despite the fact that DH got an infection and really had to trust God just to be able to keep our speaking commitment!



I am sharing a card I made for the HA challenge week - happily I received a spark of inspiration yesterday!
Tomorrow is a public holiday, hope to have more time to visit you all!

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Not distressing but stressing...

at the moment....
Just want to share one last card I put in for the challenge at Hero Arts, which is all about distressing.


(Hero Arts CardArt stamp, white embossed)

I will be leaving tomorrow for Brittany with DH until Monday. It is a 7 hour drive (just as long as from Paris to Chicago by plane) but we are used to it and will be taking a picnic with us. BUT - all the preparation beforehand - cleaning the house for the couple who will look after the boys - getting all the washing and shopping done etc. etc. I work in the mornings so I felt really stressed today, BUT it is for a good purpose as we will be sharing Biblical truths about a christian marriage to a group of people who have invited us to share with them. So, we have a goal and hope to be a blessing with all the Lord has taught us.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend - the weather is not good over here!

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Hero Arts weekly challenge - DISTRESS

Thanks for dropping by my blog - I SO appreciate all the feedback!


Just sharing a couple of cards I made for the challenge on the HA blog this week, distressing your cards.



I really enjoy distress inks, love the aged look they give.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Meditation Monday - Law or Grace?!


I'm sharing something I read the other day which I can never read enough of, just to remind myself that God does not look for exterior religious efforts, but it has always been our hearts that He is interested in. A pig taken out of his sty, washed and pruned and adorned with a pretty bow will return to the mud afterwards because it is the nature of the beast. Without the inward working of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, we by nature will follow our natural inclinations.
That's why I LOVE GRACE! Jesus accepted in a heart changes natural desires to Godly ones, His Grace changes our values, our mentality, our characters - we live from the inside to the outside and don't need a set of rules to keep us in line!!
A couple of weeks ago the theme at our church was Law and Grace - and as we share the Sunday morning with two other preachers, when it was René's (my DH) turn, I did a little bit of theater in front of the church to try to explain what the difference is.
But I will quote what I wanted to share first:

"Have you ever watched someone walking a dog on a leash when the dog doesn't want to go where its owner is going? The owner is constantly tugging on the leash, pulling the dog from here and there, telling it to "stop that" and "come back here". That's the way a lot of us live. We are on a 'law leash'. Our lives consist of "Stop that; come back here; don't do that". Only it's in terms of "Read your Bible; pray; go to church; pay your tithes; witness". Now, these are certainly the things we should be doing, but God never meant us to do them at the end of a leash. What a difference when you see a dog and its owner that have a strong relationship. The dog doesn't need a leash to go for a walk. Its owner can just speak a word and the dog responds. Now we're not comparing ourselves to dogs, we're comparing performance-based Christian living to relationship-based Christian living. Big, big difference!

Paul writes: "Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life" (2 Corinthians 3:5-6 NAS).

When God redeemed you, He wrote His law in your heart and mind (Hebrews 10:16). That means He wants to relate to you from the inside. You shouldn't need an external system of rules to 'keep you in line', because you have internalized God's Word and you have a desire to obey and please Him from your heart."
(From a devotional by Bob Gass)

Unquote
You guessed it, I took an invisible dog out for a walk, firstly a dog that I pulled and tugged at as an illustration of how exterior rules tug and pull at us and afterwards how the dog walked in quiet confidence next to me because of a good relationship.

I hope this may bless you today!

Friday, April 17, 2009

Art Creations Friday # 22


I really loved the elegance of this image that was given by the Art Creation Friday girls for this week's challenge.
I used a music collage stamp from Penny Black (from 2002) which I had really forgotten about but it just seemed to fit as background. It has been white embossed. I added some lace and some colour in the flowers.
The challenge can be found here.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Wednesday Stamper - create on the back of a postcard


I was already creating something with postcards, so I thought I would post this for the wednesday stamper challenge, which can be found here with thanks to Hermine.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Beyond paper Hero arts challenge

Hi, I hope you all had a very blessed Easter! It seemed to have passed me by as my DH was away for three days and as I have a handicapped son of 19 years who has a terrible cold, I couldn't really do much than go for a walk with him. The French do not celebrate Easter as we do, so for them it was just a bank holiday Monday today. It has rained non-stop all weekend too! I'm sorry but there will be no Mediation Monday today - I have had horrible computer problems that caused me frustration and I am just too weary to do it.



So I will post my challenge entries for the 'beyond paper' challenge on the Hero Arts blog this week.

What is 'beyond paper' on this card - the shrink plastic charms. The butterfly has been reduced to a quarter of it's size and the leaf which is hanging from the lace to about a third.



My heat-gun started smoking yesterday so I had to stop! What you do is stamp the image on the rough side of the shrink plastic - color it in, if you want to attach it with string then punch a hole in it - then you shrink it holding it lightly in place with a craft knife or pencil. When it has shrunk, flatten it out with an acrylic stamp holder and voila, your instant charm!



The lilacs are what my husband just brought home for me, picked them along the way! The yellow roses were in my craft room last week - just love them but they only lasted three days! Glad I took a picture!

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Art Creations Friday

The image provided this week was the little girl next to a basket with eggs.



The background image was a free download from the Vintage fairy - with thanks.
The challenge can be found here.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Bluebird

I so LOVE these stamps from Artistic Outpost that I am experimenting with them on all different kinds of backgrounds.


This one is made with Basic grey 'Porcelain' PP as background panel. Stamped on a scrap of PP and used a dark pink scrap (thanks Sue) for the flowers and punched out butterfly (Martha Stewart punch - love it).
I combined the ATC with this card as it has the same colours, but is just quickly made with left over pieces of paper.

These two ATC's were made with scraps too - so glad I keep them in the scrap basket. I have four scrap baskets: large, medium, small and tiny.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Turquoise and hats

Via the blog of Ros this morning, I saw that there was a challenge for turquoise and hats - and funnily enough I had just finished a card with these exact elements! So that is where it is going... to a place called 'Soartful Challenges'.



I just want to say a word to the American ladies in the land of blogging art - I am just so thankful that you ladies are around! I noticed that the visits to my blog are 10 to 1 ladies from the USA! What an encouraging bunch of women, always there to leave an encouraging comment and are super positive! Such a refreshment!! Love that positive mindset!

Monday, April 6, 2009

Meditation Monday - the fourth 'A' - APPRECIATE


Hi ladies! We saw last week how having the attitude to adapt, as a service to the Lord, can have an astounding effect in your marriage. A man has the DNA of being a leader and the woman as being a helper. If these two can fuse together, in their God given roles, a harmonious marriage can result which in turn brings fruit to the Church and society. A good functioning couple brings harmony in the lives of their children too!

I thought of doing a Part 2, but running through the book 'The Total Woman', I have covered most of the principal issues, and feel at peace to go the 4th 'A' which is APPRECIATE him!

Here is Marabel... Quote

"As you grow older you'll find that the one thing to treasure most in life is loyalty and the worst and hardest thing to accept is ingratitude"... were words I heard recently. I pondered over these words... Ingratitude is almost the antithesis of loyalty.
"Maybe it's the age we are living in; but everybody seems so unappreciative and my wife heads the pack"... was another thing I recently heard.

There is no joy in giving, if the receiver is ungrateful. An ungrateful wife is no joy to her husband. They have forgotten those simple words 'thank you".
Appreciation involves two parts - internal and external. First of all, a wife cannot be grateful if she's grasping for her rights. If she feels she has the right to be taken out to dinner once a week, she will not express sincere gratitude. Only if she yields this right to her Creator is she able to fully appreciate dinner out, since it is then a privilege, an unforgettable experience.

Secondly, appreciation from within must be communicated outwardly, by words, attitude, or action. A heart of gratitude must express itself. A thankful person cannot keep quiet.

Don't let your 'rights' keep you from being grateful!

Are you appreciative of the basics your husband knocks himself out to provide to support the family? What about when he brings you a gift.... even if you don't like it? His only reward is seeing how pleased you are. Be very sensitive how you react by telling him how thoughtful he is for thinking of you. You don't have to be insincere about it if you don't like what he bought, but your attitude is so important! A sincere "Thank you honey" will satisfy any husband whether it be for a mink stole or a bag of popcorn! The Biblical admonition "It is more blessed to give than to receive' is so true. Don't keep your husband from being blessed!

Unquote

Well, I believe this was the simplest one of the four, but still important, not to take what our husbands do for granted and to show our appreciation in word and deed to them. I know it encourages my husband when I say thank you for all the things he does -it seems to uplift his spirit and gives him a sense of well being.

I have been very guilty in the past of not showing my appreciation for the gifts my DH brought home. If he brought flowers I would complain that I would have rather had a plant, because then I could enjoy it more by putting it in the garden... only thinking in the practical sense of 'more value for our money'. He has always reacted very hurt to this way of 'practical' thinking and hasn't felt encouraged to bring me home flowers on impulse! I have put a damper on him wanting to surprise me because he was scared I wouldn't like anything of his choice, whether it be clothing or jewelry and that has remained for many years. Now, I don't care what he brings home, I just accept it and thank him for it in a sincere way - it isn't important what it is, it's the thought and the warm heart behind it that I love!

I hope these four 'A's have been helpful for you - I have seen them work and can recommend them! They are the keys to making your man come alive!

Saturday, April 4, 2009

TGIF - Secret garden

The challenge this week at TGIF is secret garden and the new porcelain papers from Basic grey have a geen foilage paper which I think suits this theme very well. The image was found on Elizabeth's blog who offers some gorgeous images from French postcards.




We are having summer temperatures at the moment, bees are buzzing around the fruit trees and the fields are full of colour with yellow and white flowers and a dot of pink thyme flowers here are there. Wild asparagus can be found as well as orchids which line the sides of the little country roads.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Theme Thursday - Paris

The theme thursday challenge this week is Paris which gave me the idea of an ATC I did but never put on my blog.



Background panel is distressed.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Wednesday Stamper - 2" x 4"


I joined in the challenge this week at Wednesday Stamper to make a little vintage piece of 2 x 4 inchies - nice to do. The background is made with the new Screen Shadow stamp from Hero Arts, stamped with Vintage photo distress ink.