Encouragement

It has been far too long. But, I will never forget the years of Blogging and Card making that I so enjoyed. I have had about four Books made with some of the years I liked the best on my blog. A lovely keepsake.
I hope you are all well in the present crisis. I have thought of lots of ladies who I had a special connection with like Lin, Franziska and Nancy to name a couple. 
My main occupation as you know is working alongside my husband in our Missionary work but as you also know I LOVE to paper-craft. I have an Etsy Shop which is doing very well and that fills my need to be productive! I need to do something tangible that bears fruit on earth and for heaven!
I have come a long way since my card-making days. I have learned so much from ladies who are experts in their field of making Junk Journals, Ephemera and other forms of papercraft. It is so fulfilling still to use up scraps and collage, probably my favorite thing to do.
On the family side, we now have four granddaughters and three grandsons.. We are blessed indeed.

I just wanted to share a word that I recently read from Derek Prince which really touched me. The fact that we can be plagued by fear at times and another time we can be at peace.

How to Overcome Fear

When I am afraid, I will trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid. Psalm 56:3–4 

One thing I especially appreciate in the Bible is its honesty. It faces facts. It pictures life as it is. It takes account of human weakness. David does not make false claims for himself. He does not say, “I will never be afraid.” Rather, he acknowledges: “There may come times when I will be afraid. But when those times come, I will know what to do. I will trust in God and I will praise His word—His sure, unfailing word. Trusting and praising will overcome my fear.” 

In the life of faith, there is often a conflict between two areas of our being: our spirit and our emotions. In our emotions, we go through all the reactions of fear, perhaps even of panic. In vain we struggle against it. It grips us.

But there is another area of our being—the spirit— that will not yield to panic, that does not accept the dictates of emotions. The spirit within us says, “I will not accept the verdict of my emotions about this situation. I will turn to God. I will remember what His Word says. I will find the promise of God that meets my need. In my emotions I may feel fear, but in my innermost being I trust, and that trust imparts to me a security and confidence that are much deeper than my emotions.”

In such a situation our personality may be compared to a river on a windy day. Our emotions are like the waves on the surface—troubled and tossed. But in the innermost depths of our being, the life of our spirit flows on in untroubled peace.

Faith’s Response Lord, I thank You for the peace deep inside me that is not affected by the winds on life’s surface.

Free download share

Hello ladies!
Hope you are all well.
For those into Ephemera and Junk Journals, I thought I would share this image which is a Flea-Market find.

This is the first time I'm sharing an image, if it does not work or is not how it's supposed to be, could somebody please tell me? Feel free to use it in your work!

Thank you and I hope you enjoy the image!
Be blessed!
Jacqueline

Ephemera

Hello ladies, I thought I would pop in just to say hi.
I have gone right off of card-making and onto Junk Journals, Ephemera, Tag-making... yes even Tim Holtz has found a place in my heart.. lol.
Of course, I make lots of stuff for my shop and for the time being, it gives me such pleasure that it's probably what I will keep on doing for the time being.

I hope you are all well. Our fifth grandchild will be arriving in April and it will be the first boy! Looking forward to that. Nothing else has changed really, still as it was last year.

I will share some things I make at the moment:

This is one of my Ephemera Packs (it has sold) which I make a lot of.

I also love collaging and here are two envelopes which have been collaged and stitched for added texture.

and this one.

I make paper brooches, I prefer to call them that to the original name of Clusters. They are scraps which have been stapled together to create a nice little embellishment. I use them on packages.

These are Tag Holders or Library Card Holders which I have made from Patterned Paper.

And lastly, I regularly make die-cut Pockets and fill them with Ephemera. I LOVE Birds, can you tell?

So these were some of the things I regularly make and thought I would share.
Just a little shout out to Sandy Millar who sent me a convo today and mentioned my Blog.

Please take a look at my Etsy Shop, just click on the Avatar in the top left-hand corner. Thanks!

Blessings to you all!
Jacqueline

Using old Books

I LOVE old Books - especially of Nature with Birds, Flowers, and Butterflies! I found a Beautiful Old Book from the 70's which has been totally devoured by my crafting endeavors. If I can recycle something, then the satisfaction is great.

This Book is a gem!

and these are the tags I made with some pages.

These can be used for so many projects! I have sheets of vellum sentiments in gold and black which I used and stitched to the Tag.
They are for sale in my shop together with some faux postage stamps which I stamped and cut out from this beautiful Book:

and they look like this:

With old music sheet paper, I collaged these tags, which have a faux postage stamp and fussy-cut flowers, also from an old book.

and finally, I'm sharing these altered wine labels with Bird Images from a very old Book:

I will add the link to my shop here. I have many more projects to share another time.

Apparently, millions of Books get thrown away every month!! Can you imagine, all the new papers we buy while brilliant Books are getting trashed. That is such a shame!

Hope to have inspired somebody today.
Jacqueline

Pocket Folders

So, hello to you all! I know, it's been a long time, and I hope you are all well. I have been so busy with my Etsy shop that it has taken up a lot of my time and I am enjoying it so much!

I wanted to share my Pocket Folders with you. I have made so many, and in so many different formats that it will be hard to choose just one.

I found a template in this Etsy Shop which I have used to make them. You can either print directly to your patterned paper or make your own covers.

This is the one I have been using.

I chose the cover from a Book called 'Island: the diary of a Year on Easedale', which I also sell in my shop but it has sold out for the time being. Beautiful Book with gorgeous pictures of Nature on a Scottish Island. I just cut out the cover from the Book and adhered it to the front of the template.

This is the inside cover with the two pockets which are part of the template pack. I cut out the printed template and covered with other pictures from the same Book. I love to fill the pockets with Ephemera which I make myself from all sorts of different sources, like pp, old botanical books, etc.

This is the back which is also a picture from the same book. When the two covers have been made I attach the spine, of which there are three to choose from. I prefer this lovely music note one, which I don't have to cover. Of course, the pockets are made after the covers have to been fixed together.

So this is just one I am sharing with you, which has sold in the meantime.

Please take a look in my shop, Souvenir de la France. You can find it here.

Thanks for your visit today, I hope you are inspired to have a go yourself. You can keep all your little bits and pieces safely inside this folder and its such fun to make.

I hope to post again soon!

Jacqueline

Tag-Frames

Hello! It's sweltering hot here, way over 30°C every day and very energy-sapping.

I made another four 'Tag Frames', I will call them that, as they have a recycled element of a window envelope, used as a frame for a nice picture and then sewn to a piece of patterned paper and then adhered to the Tag card base, finished off with a piece of string or bakers twine. A die cut leaf and a prima flower have been stitched together with the frame.

I thought these would be a nice replacement for a gift card or as a gift tag on a package for someone special or a special occasion!

I have these for sale in my Etsy shop 'Souvenir de la France'.  They measure 5 1/4" by 3 1/2" and come in two vellum pockets (two tags in each) and four envelopes. I enclose a little tea-bag with Provence lavender from the garden.

That's all for today! Wishing you all well this Summer!

Oh yes, a little photo of my two daughters-in-law, my son and grand-daughter yesterday, having fun in the pool.

Jacqueline

Set of Five Notes Cards in Collage style with Bird-prints

Hello everyone - very hard to create and concentrate in this hot weather!

I did manage to make some cards for my Etsy shop, helped by a fan on my desk.
My shop is called Souvenir de la France btw.

I discovered some beautiful bird-prints a while ago which really lend themselves to the vintage collage style and I had some lovely patterned papers to combine them in the mix and match fashion.

These are in the white/beige/pink/red and green color combo.

I also made some in blue and green.

Thanks for popping by and enjoy the summer!
Jacqueline