Favorite color challenge - Theme Thursday

Another lovely theme from the Theme Thursday challenge blog which can be found here. My favorite colors are all tints and shades of vintage pink, burgundy, browns and beige.
The stamped image is from Sugar Lump Studios and I also used the Antique brocade background stamp from Hero Arts for a panel. I distressed the snowflake with worn lipstick distress ink.



Please don't look at the lines - my cutter has broken after four years - I really loved that little apparatus and now I can't cut straight!

Tag Tuesday - paper piecing

So happy that Louise is back again. She made a beautiful tag for this week's challenge which can be found here.



For my tag I tore paper strips in the same colors as the vintage image in a Christmas theme. The little children look like they are praying! I have reached 50 tags which I have made instead of cards, ready and waiting to
be sent out at the beginning of December, and this tag will be added to the others.

I am nearing finishing point!


This is the image I used on my tag and I'm sure others might love to use it. It was a freebie I downloaded a long time ago so I cannot credit the source unfortunately but I'm sure the giver would have liked it to be freely given to others.

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.

Sharing in the plunder!

There was a little prize on Louise's blog a while back for her tag challenge and I was so lucky to have been picked.. She told me she would share some things from her Tim Holtz cruise - which I thought was very nice of her!!



It's so nice to be able to craft with things I have never laid eyes on before, like a 'mask' and acetate letters! Just look at those gorgeous prima flowers. I was so excited!

Card patterns sketch 37

My Christmas card for the Card Patterns sketch 37 for this week. Unfortunately this paper is nice on both sides and I had to choose.



This is the sketch:



Two vintage cards I made with beautiful images I received from Nancy. Thank you Nancy I am really enjoying them.

Wallpaper flowers stamp from Hero Arts

Just recently I won a gorgeous stamp on Tomoh's Attic blog. Tomo is Japanese and makes delightful art!



For my tag I stamped the stamp in versamark on PP, silver embossed and cut out the flowers to decorate my tag, using pearls for dimension. It's just a simple tag and it will take the place of a Christmas card to accompany a Christmas gift. I will just attach the tag to the parcel, no card needed!

Here are a couple more cards I made for the Hero Arts Christmas accessory challenge this week.
The first one is using this stamp again, stamped in black and painted the flowers and leaves with diluted distress inks, fired brick and peeled paint.



This second card uses the stamps I photographed it with, pretty simple and quick. I love the texture this stamp gives.



The temps have dropped here and yesterday I was shivering from the cold and had to light a log fire... in October already!! But, today the sun is shining which does help. My son who attends Bible school in Holland is arriving this evening for a week's holiday, looking forward to that!

Have a great weekend!

Theme Thursday - Winter

For the winter theme at Theme Thursday I chose to make a Christmas tag using a stamp which comes from Sugar Lump Studios, designed by Nancy James.

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PEARL OF THE WORD - BROKENNESS

I knew what I had to share this afternoon and when I opened my devotional this morning the Lord confirmed it in my heart... I was in awe!

I was pondering about the 'natural' strength of a man or a woman. Some people seem to be so strong in their bodies, minds and spirits! Other people seem weary and slow, even depressed and fragile! How do we understand what it means when people who live without a reborn spirit seem to have more strength and energy than a reborn child of God?! Have you ever wondered about that??

I remember during my first years of being reborn of God through the Holy Spirit that instead of being more loving and kind, my human nature in all it's rebellion seemed to surface and I really had problems, wanting to be what God said I should be and in reality finding myself doing the opposite!
It seemed that all my natural (soulful) resources were drying up!! Luckily this is a work of the Holy Spirit - He wants us to be broken and dependant so that we draw our resources from Himself!

"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." Psalm 51:17

I am quoting from my devotional now, which so blessed me this morning:

Quote:
It was when Mary broke her beautiful "alabaster jar of very expensive perfume" (Matt.26:7), destroying its future usefulness and value, that the wonderful fragrance filled the house.
It was not until Jacob's natural strength was broken, when 'his hip was wrenched" (Gen.32:25) at Peniel, that he came to the point where God could clothe him with spiritual power.
It was once Jesus took "the five loaves.. and broke them" (Luke 9:16) that the bread was multiplied to feed the five thousand.
It is not until a beautiful kernel of corn is buried and broken in the earth by death that its inner heart sprouts, producing hundreds of other seeds or kernels.
Unquote

I am very attracted to brokenness in people - I desire to be that for God with my whole heart because it brings Him glory when we are broken in our wills, our ambitions, ideals, desires...so many other things... as it is written in Isa.33:23 "The lame will carry off plunder".

Tag Tuesday - pink and brown

As Louise is away on a Tim Holtz cruise, Nancy from Sugar Lump Studios is hosting the challenge this week which can be found here, with the theme pink and brown.
I used a tag that was attached with a saftey pin on a piece of string to the inside of a pair of my DS's trousers (I usually keep all the tags from clothing)so I had my basis and worked from there. I distressed over the top of some PP to deepen the brown color of the back panel.

Thank you Nancy!

Lavender sachets

I LOVE lavender!





A little break from card-making to make some lavender sachets. I stamped with a lavender and pot image on the fabric and sewed a little pot from fabric on afterwards on the one sachet and the other sachet is one I made last year.

I got round to making a little basket full. The little basket the sachets are in came with bread in it - our little boulangerie sells some of their special bread this way.

Tag Tuesday - Shabby Chic

Thank you Louise for the tag challenge this week and the great theme, which can be found here.


To me, shabby chic means roses, pearls, lace, buttons, torn edges, vintage etc.!





I took my time on this challenge this week, not to rush it, ending up doing three tags as I really love this style.
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I have a pearl to share with you today from:

Luke 6,38
“Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be given to you. For with the same measure you measure it will be measured back to you.”

It's about the divine law of sowing and reaping. A little while back a lady from church gave me some sage from her garden to make tea with. She recently told me that she was afraid her Sage shrub was going to hit the dust but since she had been giving it away all of a sudden it started flourishing! I LOVE those stories about giving because one thing I have experienced is that we can NEVER OUTGIVE GOD!

Another form of measuring which is so easy to fall into without hardly noticing you are doing it, is judging others according to your own standard - or being critical according to your own wisdom - it will be measured back to us one way or another!

Our part is to sow and God will care for the harvest in our lives and the lives of others - but in HIS time and Way as He is the only One who knows the motivations of our hearts and what HE is aiming at. He wants to work on our characters so that we will be like Him! Although God's Grace and Love are unconditional, as with all Authority - He does have a protocol and that is His Eternal Word!

The Bible says even our tears bring a harvest of joy (Ps 126,5) and that if we give to the poor then He will give us good health in our time of need.
Wishing you a good harvest today!

Vintage collage

I just took another sample of alot of old vintage cards which have been on my blog but years ago and I like to remember them for ideas. This way is quite practical

WCMD - Sketch Card Patterns

At least I have joined in on one challenge for the Oct. 3rd WCMD. I liked the sketch at Card Patterns and joined in.



Here is my card using Hero Arts Real flower stamps and the black images are from a stamp set I received from Sue. Thanks Sue, they are lovely decorative stamps!



And here is the sketch I used, which I turned around so that the circles are on the other side in the form of flowers:



Last but not least we are having absolutely gorgeous summer temperatures at the moment and it would be a shame to sit indoors!! I went to the vineyards with David (who held the bucket) to collect some grapes that the harvester left behind. These will be going into the juicer for the juice!



Have a blessed sunday!
Jacqueline

Sharing

I love flower stamps, birds, branches, abstract designs for backgrounds etc., script, butterflies, vintages images... and I tend to love the colors in this card the most - pink, brown, light shades of lavener, burgundy.

These are once again scraps from my scrap basket, all punched into squares.



HERO ARTS WEEKLY CHALLENGE - ATCs


I made alot of these little art canvasses so I mounted them as a collage.

Finally I won some blog candy over at Tomoh's Attic (Japan) blog! So happy to have won this gorgeous Hero Arts background design block!



Have a great weekend!

Artistic Outpost - birthday celebration

On the Artistic Outpost blog there is a sketch challenge to celebrate their second birthday.



Here is my card using stamps from the Bluebird stamp plate, my favorite at the moment.



Here is the sketch.