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

Celebrating!

I am celebrating today - just had my 35th and last radio therapy treatment this morning, just before Christmas! For the rest of this year anyway I do not have any appointments etc. just can enjoy my time at home with our boys. DH put a bottle of champagne in the fridge.. and I am preparing a Chinese meal with Duck, we love that.

Yesterday afternoon I tried my hand at Salt dough, never tried it before, I wanted to make some Christmas decorations. It's so easy, you need 1/2 cup of salt, 1/2 cup of water and 1 cup of flour. Mix to a dough - use a cutter to make the forms and then microwave for three minutes. Here are some I made which are all hanging in the tree now. I just used watercolor paints and some glitter glue before adhering a flower with a gem.

I have a card to share as well. I was inspired by Dotukas, here is her photo stream. She might just inspire you too. I had a stamp with some Fir trees from Artistic Outpost that I had never used. Now all my cards have been sent (I think I made around 50 this year) I can use this idea for next year.
I really enjoyed using this stamp for a change!

Then this afternoon I made a whole tin of Christmas cookies, never made these before from a French recipe with chocolate chips but they are delicious!

To count another blessing to my lovely day, I received a little parcel from a lady from our Church in Holland who has always prayed for me. It is a Dutch magazine with beautiful pictures of inspiration for the home, a luxury item I call it! The little heart is handmade from material, and 'Hope' is stamped on it. Gives me an idea too!

I really hope your Christmas planning is not to stressful! I have a lovely link for you to go too - here.

May your Christmas be happy and your New Year blessed!

Christmas Tag and a little story

Another little Christmas Tag I made.

I am reading a book by Francine Rivers called:  HER MOTHER'S HOPE.
I have to share this with you as it so touched my heart. Hildemara Rose is a little girl, born to an English Mama and a German Papa. It is during the first world war and due to several unnerving circumstances the couple move to the U.S.A. Papa is a devout Christian and reads the Bible to his children. Hildemara is a sweet girl, but of weak disposition and at the age of five gets picked on at school by her teacher because of the fact that her brother was killed by the Germans in the war.
They are not a rich family, having to live in a tent, and during inspection in the morning at school, Hildemara always gets picked on for having dirty hands or hair, by her teacher. She is humiliated every time but doesn't talk about it to her parents.
One evening Papa reads the Bible about how Jesus was crucified on the Cross and about loving your enemies. Hildemara thought about it - did that mean she had to love her teacher although her teacher hated her?  Pray for those that persecute you, Jesus said.  What did that word mean she thought? Mama had said that it meant that its when someone treats you cruelly, when they spitefully use you. Her Papa said that 'Jesus was treated cruelly, when He was nailed to the Cross. He prayed for the people who put Him there. He asked God to forgive them because they didn't know what they were doing'.  Papa continued talking to his little daughter 'God says if you love only those who love you, then you're no better than those who are cruel to you. If you are kind only to friends, you are no different than your enemy'.
Hildemara didn't want her parents to be sad for her so she started praying for her teacher that she would be nice to her, because maybe she didn't know what she was doing either.  The prayers didn't change anything, in fact it all got a whole lot worse. The next day, the teacher made a spectacle of her in front of all the other children. Papa had told her to forgive but forgiveness wasn't easy, not when the same thing happened over and over again.
With the new school term, Hildemara's sister Clotilde went to school with her for the first time. Hildemara was dreading going back to school and was scared for her sister, but Clotilde was prettier than she was so she hoped that she would be spared the teachers wrath. Once again, Hildemara got pulled by her hair by her teacher yanking her from her seat. Clotilde ran from her seat screaming at the teacher to leave her sister alone and kicked her in the shins.  Hildemara grabbed her sister's hand and fled from the classroom. 'Why did you kick the teacher Clotilde? Papa says we aren't supposed to hate anyone; people were mean to Jesus too, and He didn't kick anyone. We have to be kind to her no matter what she does. Her brother got killed in the war, she hates us because Papa's German. We have to pray for her, she's very sad and angry. I've been praying for her for two years now, she doesn't know what she is doing.'
Very soon the Headmaster of the school found them and took them home and explained what had happened to Hildemara's Papa.
That evening Papa lifted Hildemara onto his knee, brushed back her hair and kissed her cheeks. 'Mrs Ransom won't be your teacher anymore. She quit her job.'
'She hates me Papa, she's always hated me!'
'I don't think she hates you anymore, said Papa.'
Hildemara's mouth wobbled and she burst out crying. 'I prayed for her Papa. I wanted her to like me. I prayed and prayed and my prayers never changed anything.

Papa pressed her head gently against his shoulder. 'Prayers changed you, Hildemara. You learned to love your enemy.'
UNQUOTE

That last sentence so touched me!! Our prayers will not always change other people, the circumstances, the World - but they will change us!

JOY!

I haven't had much time to give my blog the attention I would like to give it so I'm sharing a card which was posted on the Flickr gallery but not here until now.

I used a Collage stamp from Hero Arts for the background. Cut out some branches using a Stampin' Up stamp and the bird is from Inkadinkado. None of them are Christmas Stamps, but woven together with a bit of red glitter and green ink, it will pass for one.

Another thing that gives me joy is that God is so faithful! I have waited six weeks before sharing this testimony. As you know I started radio therapy six weeks ago and I had written down a promise from God, which is in the Old Testament from Jer.43:1-3, which I carried with me in my bag which I took to the hospital every day.

“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;

I have called you by name; you are Mine!

 “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;

And through the rivers, they will not overflow you.

When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched,

Nor will the flame burn you.

3 “For I am the LORD your God,

The Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

It was all about the verse underlined as I well knew that radiation can cause burns. At the beginning of the treatment I visited doctors and spoke to many patients. The alarming thing was that even the professionals would tell me about a 'prayer' I could consider, which meant going to the local Fire Brigade, ask them to lay hands on me and pray as a means to 'stop the fire', which is called 'l'arrêt du feu' in French. Apparently, the fire escapes via the feet.... This is an old Pagan tradition, and not the first one I had heard about.
As a Christian I have the Bible and I would rather direct my prayer to the God who created the Universe! The Bible says in Psalm 146: Put not your trust in princes, nor in the sons of man, in whom there is no help. 
I prayed and sang the above verse in Jes.43 every day in the morning, before and after treatment.
I was a little bit discouraged last Friday as I was very red and had a small burn on my lower neck. At the hospital on Tuesday they told me that I only had ONE more treatment to go that directs radiation to all three areas that were tattooed, and after that just eight more treatments only to the scar on my breast, which is 10 seconds each time which is nothing compared to the full treatment I was getting!
When the doctor took a look at me, she said - what are you complaining about, it looks fantastic compared to other cases I have seen! They didn't even think a bandage was necessary for the wound - that would clear up with a cream!
Can you imagine how thankful I was to God for helping me, for giving me faith and hope to trust in Him at all times, even when it doesn't look good, just to go that extra mile with Him and say - I trust You!!

I also want to pass on a link to this blog and this message, called The Surprise - I think it really describes how we think and who God is. I think its wonderful!

Christmas collage tags

Yesterday I received a phone call that the Machine which is used for radio therapy was 'en panne' which means not functioning so I have my second free morning this week. Probably just as well as I am red and itchy after 23 sessions of breast targeting!

So I have been making Christmas Tags.

I stamped an old Collage Christmas stamp from Hero Arts directly onto patterned paper and white embossed.
Cut out the size I needed to fit inside the already stamped Simple Frame from HA onto PP and cut out frame. I adhered paper to the back as well to strengthen it.
Added a little vintage image which I punched out and some snowflakes punched out of vellum.

This one is made in the same way and I think I will continue making these as little Christmas gifts while I am still inspired.

Now, the other day I downloaded the December calender from Mary Green here. I had an idea with a vintage image I had, so made this card with it.

Thanks for your visit!