Christmas mail

I wanted to make a little Christmas mail just reminiscing over the past year - a year full of blessing and encouragement. My last six-monthly appointment this month gave me a clean report. I can only thank the Heavenly Father for His constant care. One son got married, David went to a new Home. I am still in love with my husband, something to be unbelievably happy about! When I see all my boys sitting next to each other in Church then I only have a deep, deep, thankfulness which wells up inside and bursts in praise to God!
I also had a time when I started to complain. I felt cut off from the world. My latest trip to Holland and the wonderful counseling of a great friend of mine helped me to make a decision - I will be where God wants me to be because of who He IS, not because of what He does. It has brought a new peace into my life! Having a relationship with somebody means you love them for who they are, right? The same goes for God!! I just want to be a blessing to other people and share His Peace and Light.

Our family picture

Another feat was that I made my first real English Christmas cake, I didn't know I could do it, but enjoyed the process immensely, especially making Marzipan,  it was easier than I thought. So, I made four small ones, as I thought they would make nice Christmas gifts, but only managed to give one away :)

This is the only one I have left. I think I received the piece of lace from Susanne, Illinois - everything comes in handy! So now I have my mince pies, sausage rolls, spicy pears and peaches and other Christmas specials ready. Tomorrow I am going to marinate my turkey (which is called brining). The recipe is here for those interested. I made my own 'bouquet garni' from the herbs I have in the garden. Tied a piece of string around them and put them in a little yoghurt pot so they don't dry out.

Then I have a Chistmas card to share. I have a lovely basket which carries the cards I have received in the past years, it is a treasure chest! I love to look through them for inspiration. I got inspired to make this one using distress markers. Gives such a different look to using a distress pad.

And I made a couple of vintage tags which I added to two gift packages.

To close I wanted to quote a devotional which just confirmed what I wrote above. It speaks volumes to me and I want to cherish it for the coming year and work with it.

Quote

A Father and a Friend
Luke 11:1--13
"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find ..." (v. 9)

The great danger of a quiet time is that we will use it as an opportunity to petition God rather than to know Him and be known by Him. I thought back to a statement I remember reading in C. S. Lewis's book, Prayer: Letters to Malcolm, to the effect that the older he got the less involved he became in petitionary prayer. "The strange thing is," said Lewis, "the more I pray for things the less my prayers seem to get answered. I think God is leading me on to ask less and less for things and more and more for Himself." Then he expressed this profound thought: "Prayer is taking part in the process of being known." I glanced up as I wrote those words and looked out at the trees in my garden.

God knows everything there is to know about those trees, but they are not persons so they cannot join in the process of being known. God knows all there is to know about me, but that objective knowledge is quite different from the process of drawing close to Him in prayer and letting Him know me through my opening up to Him. One is objective knowledge, the other experiential. And what is breathtakingly marvelous about all this is that in every spiritual tête-to-tête I hold with God, He seeks to draw my soul into such a relationship with Him that I know Him as a Father and a Friend. Such knowledge is almost too good to be true. But also too good not to be true.
Unquote

Just wanted to say THANK YOU for being so kind, for your visits, your lovely feedback and for the beautiful, inspirational work you do on your blogs. I really enjoy your company!

May God's richest blessing be yours in 2013 and Happy Christmas!

Jacqueline

Vintage Christmas and revisiting a Christmas Tag

I have been playing with some Christmas vintage images to make a couple of cards which I know I will need in the coming weeks.

and this one

 A long time ago there used to be a challenge called 'Tag Tuesday' which was hosted by Louise Granlund. That used to be a little highlight of my week. I thought it would be nice to revisit one of the Christmas tags I made at that time. We were to use three certain colors, which I found very hard. The nice thing about revisiting a card or tag is that you already have the design and all you need to do is use different elements to get a totally different look.

This is my tag for 2012

And this is my old Christmas tag from 2010. I made it into a tag-card, it opens up for a written message.

 Wishing you all the best with the Christmas preparations.
Jacqueline

Christmas Tags from Wine Labels

Dear ladies,
I had made a Video to show you how I make one of these tags, but unfortunately is was too voluminous and the technical knowledge here in the house is just not sufficient to get it on the blog!

I made lots of these in different colors with the wine labels my son brought home for me.This one is stormy sky blue. I used a snowflake and Holly stamp to decorate the background. The dove is from Hero Arts which I stamped and embossed on the back of another wine-label as the quality of these little canvases is just top notch! I have just one label left which I am going to scan to make some more as they will be my Christmas 'card' for this year.

This one uses bundled sage distress ink.

This one uses Victorian Velvet. If ever the video can be converted I will put it on my blog.

And here they are hanging up waiting to be sent out in December!

Until next time!
Jacqueline

Wreath and vintage tags

Hope you are enjoying the Christmas season!
I must say that my baking efforts had more success than my crafting efforts this year. I have lost a lot of inspiration but I'm putting that down to what I have been through. I have enjoyed having my sons at home and hearing about their lives at the Bible school. Our weather has been cold but blue sky and sun have prevailed for the last three days.
I would like to thank everybody who took the trouble to send me a card - I received such precious works of art, real treasures and have been enjoying them all over the house! They were also a source of inspiration and will continue to be so.

So, I still need to send some New Year cards, and through the Flickr gallery I got an idea on how to use the Hero Arts wreath stamp in a new way. It has lain in my 'give away to sister' box for a long time. Thats all we need with some stamps, a little inspiration to get us going. All I have done is stamp different size snowflakes, holly, leaves, stars etc. in different distress ink colors around the wreath, added some pearls, crystals and silver glitter. The nice thing about this is that you can use all your smaller sized stamps and different ones every time to change the look of it. It is quick and easy and all you need is a die-cut circle (thanks Sue Czosek).

I'm entering my tag-wreath into the Simon Says Stamp Challenge - 'anything goes', which can be found here.

Here are some vintage tags, love doing these!

God bless!
Jacqueline

Tag Tuesday - Christmas colors green/brown/yellow

Thank you ladies once again for your lovely comments on my last post, I feel so blessed by them. Yesterday I received the Magazine IRL and was so happy to have a copy.

Another reason to be happy is because Louise is back with her weekly tag challenge! Missed you Louise. It is the one challenge I really look forward to.

Funny thing is, I made this last night and it fits the bill (except for the little touches of pink...).

All I had to do was add something yellow so opted for a flower. This is the first time I'm using a poinsettia stamp that Louise sent to me ages ago and I love it. Why did I discover that so late? So thank you Louise, it works well with collage stamping.

The robin is from Artistic Outpost, stamp plate 'Birds of a Feather which can be found here. The paper is K&Co.

Christmas

I have some Christmas shares today. I'm not really focused as I'm so preoccupied at the moment, so I just create as I find the inspiration in what meets the eye.

A little tag, just as good as a card to send.

I loved this image as soon as I saw it. I gave this a bit of shine with clear embossing powder. Used a small piece of music paper which I distressed and once again a piece of silver cardstock, recycled from an old Christmas card.
 

I used a silver sticker strip which I transformed into a frame which really only gets used at Christmas time, but at least it gets a destination!

A grid card

A card using the same image as above. I printed it out on pp to give it a different effect than if its printed on white paper.

The images used for this card are from Artistic Outpost Christmas Plate.

We have a beautiful sunny day today!

A Christmas tag

This was made very quickly as I already had the star in my scrap basket. I made one of these last year with the Basic Grey Christmas papers. The little bird is from Memory Box 'Mistletoe' papers - I just punched out one of them.

I used some silver card to mount it on, recycled from an old Christmas card. It is very easy to make one of these stars yourself with all different little scraps - just cut out a template and cut around it with other papers eight times and you have your own star.

We still haven't had snow yet but I have seen some on the nearby Mountains, so pretty.

Tag Tuesday - Christmas.. revisited

I can still remember the difficulty I had to find something red, dark blue and turquoise last year, for this tag challenge. Luckily enough this time around, the AO Robin stamp came to mind and I accidentally fished out a turquoise piece of paper while sorting out this morning.

Actually, it is a tag card. It opens up so I can write a message on the inside, that why I punched a hole for some string on the pp not on the tag itself.

Thank you Louise, I really enjoyed these colors this year!

A Christmas tag

I think this is my favorite pastime at the moment, making Christmas tags... just as well as I have quite a list of people to send too...

I love this color combo. This is an image from the Christmas Stamp plate (Artistic Outpost) that dear Sue sent to me - I love this image too.

Wishing you all a peaceful weekend. We are having exceptionally mild and sunny weather at the moment, I have been sitting out enjoying the sunshine!

Jacqueline

More Christmas tags

CI was going to make some red tags but got a different idea which I carried out here. Sue had sent me some of these shaped die-cuts which I used as a template and cut out my shapes from scraps.

The Design block I used from Hero Arts called Ponsiettas and Birds is a Christmas favorite of mine. The fact that it is so lightweight too gives it my preference.

The tags are 9.5 x 9.5 cm.

and finally a purple one:

And these are mini-mini tags made from the smallest scraps:

These can be used as gift-tags on presents.

Set of green based tags

After making the blue tags which were so enjoyable, I made three greens ones, and after these I will make some red ones and begin with blue all over again because I want these to be the tags I send out for Christmas. I so much prefer them to Christmas cards somehow.

I used scraps, punched out snowflakes from cardstock I wouldn't know what to do with otherwise, bits of ribbon etc. Just love to use bits and pieces!

The image is from Artistic Outpost, stamped on a diecut after distressing with vintage photo.

Have a peaceful Sunday.
Jacqueline

Christmas Tags

I was inspired to create some Christmas tags for the Hero Arts Christmas/holiday themed month yesterday and today.
I feel somewhat beter in my neck, what a blessing! Thanks for all your well wishes!

Here they are a close up.

So happy I purchased the snowflake punch in Myrtle Beach, so handy!

I changed my blog to get a bit more space.

Have a great weekend!
Jacqueline

Tag Tuesday - Calendar

I just had to play this week and since DH gave me a free morning from work today, I had a little extra time.

The lovely Sue Czosek sent me an amazing birthday present, just look at this beautiful stamp plate from Artistic Outpost!

Had to at least ink one of them up before I leave.

So I used the sweet image of the two children to join in the tag challenge on Louise's blog here.

The fur on the bottom of the childrens coats has been done by tearing up a white prima flower. Tearing instead of cutting leaves a little furry edge which is very effective.

Hope to be stopping by via the lap-top next week to keep in touch.

See you all again very soon!
Jacqueline

Christmas tree hangers

I was so struck by a Christmas tree hanger ornament that I received from Lynn that I just had to experiment and make some.. and now I am hooked!



The silver borders are simple peel-offs that I had in a 'give-away' box, because I didn't know how to value them properly. My son Joël had given them as a gift last Christmas - now I wish he had brought some more with him!! Isn't that nice to actually be happy with something you thought you would never use??

I embossed over the hangers about three to four times, this is what gives them that ornamental feel.



Thank you Lynn for sharing a piece of your art with me! It is great to have a close-up to be inspired.

Christmas tags and French Brioche!

Here is a sneek peak of the Christmas tags I am working on - such a relaxing thing to do, I so much prefer this than Christmas cards. I am not finished yet - alot more to go!



These are the stamps I use for the tags. LL956 Three Holiday Messages. They might be very difficult to find nowadays. I am so glad I have them!



Another card made with a Hero Arts cling stamp called 'Thank you'.



My DH is in Cyprus for ten days for the work we do here.. I couldn't go with him this time because there was nobody to look after David, our son in the holiday break.
I am missing him already.


Just had to share this brioche - the mother of Joel's girlfriend brought it round this evening, she made it herself. It is a sweet French bread made with butter and has chocolate pieces in the centre.