Wednesday, September 29, 2010

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

Monday, September 27, 2010

Peace.. from God

The Stampin' sisters launched a new challenge Sunday based on this verse:

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.
Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid."
John 14:27

A peace that surpasses all understanding is a peace that only God can give.


Another aspect of peace for me is coming to the quiet in God's Creation, especially watching the sunset. I always experience a peaceful quietness when I watch the sun set and the glow of the sky afterwards.

That is what my card is all about - a little reflection on the glow that the sun leaves in the sky and a memory of one of the sunsets I have watched in the summer from our back garden.

I will be flying to Myrtle Beach this coming Thursday morning with DH. We will be meeting with all the offices of Derek Prince Ministries world-wide for a time of sharing and prayer. Please say a prayer for me for the travelling! We have to catch three planes!

I don't know whether I will  be able to join in Tag Tuesday, I know I will miss it and all of you. Well it's only for a week.

Thanks to everybody for leaving me such lovely comments always, I feel so spoiled and blessed!

Jacqueline

Saturday, September 25, 2010

PDCC challenge # 48

I thought I would give it a go again this week with these very challenging colors!

PDCC chall

Underneath my card is the inspiration photo. I used stamps from Crafty Individuals which I haven't used for a long time.




Here is the inspiration photo. The challenge can be found here.

I have another little humorous story to tell you. Every year I say it again in the summer I crave home grown tomatoes picked  from the garden! But we don't have a veggie patch, first of all because it takes too much time and the main reason being we have very poor vineyard soil which is too hard to handle. It just doesn't budge.
This year I prayed that somebody would give me just a little bag of fresh grown tomatoes as they are not sold in the shops. And what happens? First of all we get an invitation to dinner and the lady brings in a huge plate full of home grown tomatoes in a garlic sauce... yum! Then she gave me a bag to take home which was enough for the whole week. A week later my DH visited some old friends of ours, just to say hello and the lady was busy preparing 'Tomato Farci' in the oven. They are stuffed tomatoes filled with hamburger which has been prepared with bread and garlic. He got a plate to take home with him. When he went back with the plate she gave him a bag filled with tomatoes from their garden... yum!!
Just this afternoon, we were in the Supermarket waiting to pay for our shopping and this guy suddenly appeared out of nowhere and asked me if he could pay for his two bottles first. Of course, no problem.. He wanted to shake my hand to say thanks even. He was long gone, I thought, when we left the supermarket with our shopping but he was waiting in his car. What happens? He opens his window and gives DH an armful of home-grown tomatoes!
Well Lord, who would have thought that a wild stranger would be giving me tomatoes in a parking lot of a Supermarket of all places??!!
I wonder what will happen next??!

Have a nice weekend!
Jacqueline

Friday, September 24, 2010

To everything there is a season

Thanks to Lin, I found this Site called Stampin' Sisters in Christ Challenges. Oh Happy Days! This really appeals to me and I decided to join in their challenge for Nature cards. I got the inspiration from this blog entry. Daniƫlle is a lovely Dutch Christian woman who sent me a very encouraging verse of Scripture this morning to lift my spirits - thanks Daniƫlle!

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It wouldn't be complete if I didn't thank Sue Czosek for the continual support she has been in supplying craft goodies that I could never buy here! The dies of the Birdcage and bird from Tim Holtz came from her.

All the stamps are Hero Arts, even the feathers on the bird, which is the Glande Fern C3636. The background is a pp from 7 gypsies which I stamped on with the whole clearset of leaves. I put them all together on a big acrylic block, used different color distress inks to ink them up and stamped on the paper. The birdcage is distressed and stamped on with Old French Writing. The gems are also from HA - they are my favorite Hero Hues set.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Tag Tuesday - banners

My little tag for this week. Always look forward to this challenge, which is here, run by Louise.

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I took advantage of a free download of these papers from Vinnie Pierce which can be found here. Found them in the digi section of Two Peas for those interested. I stamped the letters on my banner.

Sorry I haven't been sharing much, I have been so busy that I'm too tired at the moment. I'm praying for inspiration so that I can share something again soon.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Peacock stamp

This is a cling stamp from Hero Arts. I think it is so elegant. I got the idea to use different color embossing powders to see what results it would give. I have tried clear too, but I think in the end that I prefer just the pink and white.

For any occasion
This is with pink embossing powder.



At least I used some of the embossing powder that has been lying dormant for many years. If not I will have to throw it away as it does loose it's capabilities with age!

Friday, September 17, 2010

Sharing

Just sharing this beautiful little gift that came in the mail today from Pia in Denmark.
Last year, after I had purchased the Real Dill stamp from Hero Arts, suddenly my eyes were opened to see that wild dill was growing all around me and I hadn't known it! Well, when Pia heard my story she took photos of the Dill plant she has in her garden, which was beautiful! Now she sent me some seeds in a beautiful vellum sachet which has been stamped, so I can plant my own. What a lovely idea.

(This is a photo that she took herself.)

Here is a picture of the dill which she posted on the flickr gallery:

Thank you Pia, I love the card as well!

Just sharing a card I made to celebrate the Autumn colors. Very soon the vineyards will change color and the colors on this card are true to life of how the vineyards will look. It's such a great time of the year especially if the Indian Summer keeps going.


Have a lovely weekend!
Jacqueline


Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Tag Tuesday -- School days

I am not running over with inspiration at the moment and I have lots of Sunday school work to prepare for twenty children, so I haven't been around that much although I have been creating, as I cannot live if I'm not being creative in some way or another!



This is my little tag for Louise's weekly tag challenge. Although the theme's may be hard, it's always great to be challenged to make something out of it. The background stamp which covers the whole tag is called 'A Village' from Hero Arts. It reminds me of the villages here and in Spain. So I guessed that somewhere inside of the Port there would be a school where these girls are headed for!
The two girls stamp is from Artistic Outpost. I also used some rub-ons that Louise sent me ages ago (you remember from your cruise) and the School Days template was from Sue Czozek. Also thanks to Leni from Holland who sent me the little paper butterflies for my birthday - I sponged them with distress ink.

This is another one:

See you soon.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

A little touch of vintage

Its been such a long time ago that I made a vintage card, well let's say, used a vintage image. I found some little images recently and as DH just got me a printer as the other one broke, I decided to print them out for direct use.

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I layered two stamps using distress inks and water.

Another card using this same stamp combination:

French Post stamp

Just added a butterfly.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

A challenge to myself

Yesterday DH and I took our eldest and youngest son to the airport in Gerona, Spain to catch a flight to Holland as today was their first day at Bible School. We left very early so that we could go to our favorite spot on the Beach and take a last dip in the Sea! It was glorious weather and very peaceful. We could see the apartment we rented during the summer holidays (only three weeks ago!) while we were swimming and were so thankful that we could close off this period in our lives, knowing that all our boys love Jesus and want to follow Him and His Word.

I bought a magazine while I was there and saw a beautiful photo that I wanted to challenge myself with to create a card using the colors for Autumn.


So here is the photo:



and here is my card. The stamp is a cling from Hero Arts which I recently got.

My own challenge

And this is a photo of where we were yesterday in Calella. As soon as we crossed the border back into France it was terrible weather, and still is hot and sticky again today.....


The sea was a little bit colder but so refreshing!

And here is my tag that is an inspiration of the above photo of Callela


Missed the tag challenge this week!
Happy days!

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Blog hop Hero Arts

I'm joining in on the very first Hero Arts Flickr Group Blog Hop today with this card which has been stamped with one of my favorite HA stamps and that is the Hydrangea. The butterfly is another favorite from the Antique Engravings Clear Set which has been 'iced' with a sparkly clear embossing powder to make it shine. I also LOVE the Hero Hues mixed gems and pearls, which I use all the time.


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Beneath I have captured the shine on the butterfly.


Here is the link to the blog hop.

Happy Sunday
Jacqueline



Thursday, September 2, 2010

Another butterfly tag

Another butterfly tag - made quite a while ago but never posted on my blog.

Tag

Thankfully we have cooler weather! I went for a walk in the vineyards this afternoon and as I see all of those lovely grapes just waiting to be picked then I always feel that longing to be a fruit-bearer in God's Kingdom.

John 15:1 - "I am the True Vine, and My Father is the Vine-dresser.
verse 4: Abide in Me, and I will abide in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me."

Actually this verse says that if we abide in the Vine we shall automatically bear fruit!


As you can see on the photo, the best and biggest bunches of grapes are those that grow the closest to the vine. The leaves on the first photo are even beginning to change color already.