Winner!

Hi girls! I have returned from a fabulous three day trip with DH to the Drôme and Izere districts of Central France. It was absolutely breathtaking! We had good weather, a good hotel and visited some awesome places! We dropped our son David off at his holiday home so that we could enjoy a break for the next couple of weeks.

I will share my winner with you first. Random Org gave me the number 27 - I had thirty comments and had to deduct three of them, which gave me Brenda in South Africa as the lucky one to receive the candy. I wish I could send all of you something, I really do - but its just fair play and the way it goes. Congratulations Brenda, please send me your new address, I will packing up your winnings in the next couple of days.

 I will share a couple of photos which I took so you can enjoy what we saw too! Can you see the bicycles going through the arch? It was awesome! These gorges are called the 'Combe Laval' - a huge stretch with lots of arches and just one small wall of protection!

This is in a place called Pont-en-Royans, a village which was just amazing. These houses are called 'Maisons suspendues. You could catch a wonderful Rainbow Trout in these rivers..

As you know I have a passion for butterflies and this one beats them all. The agility, elegance and swiftness of this Swallowtail is incredible.

I will be sharing more this week.
Thanks for your visit and interest and all the lovely, warm comments you leave. Thank you!

Jacqueline

A real 'French' Give away

Recently I bought some stamps because they portrayed the French countryside. But I don't like coloring... so I thought they would be great for a give-away on my blog.
Also included are some lavender sachets and lovely soap to either use or put away in a drawer for the scent.

Just leave a comment, thats all and I will pick a number with random org when I get home on Wednesday morning.

Leaving you with a little vintage collage card, which I will send with the package. If anyone is interested in how I made the little ticket which has been stamped with a hydrangea, then here is the link to the ticket. I made it smaller in Picasa, cut it out and distressed with sky blue distress ink.
I am also including a little DIY kit, so that you can make this card yourself, with other papers.

Couldn't help adding this last photo! Bless these children Lord, give them hope and a future according to your Word!

Have a blessed weekend!
Jacqueline

Stampendous

No, I still love Hero Arts, but my friend Franziska introduced me to a beautiful stamp from Stampendous and I found it half price on-line, free shipping. It is called Botanical Asperula. I have seen enough inspiring cards to invest in it!

The background is the Musical cling from Hero Arts and of course I had to use my HA Butterfly.

This is another card using a Stampendous background stamp called 'Carte Postale' and the gorgeous Bird Cage from HA. If you didn't know already, there is so much inspiration to be found via Pinterest.


I will be away until Tuesday, enjoy the beautiful sunny days!

God bless,
Jacqueline

New Stamp - new inspiration

Don't get new stamps that often but I just bought the Timely Bird collage stamp from Hero Arts and think I will get some good mileage out of this one. It can be paper-pieced, used with distress inks, used on all different kinds of patterned paper and different backgrounds.. it will be fun finding use for it.

And my favorite method is using distress inks and layering stamps. This time I used some Washi tape, for the first time.

I have used some paper piecing on this one.

Have a wonderful weekend!
Jacqueline

Home-made

Hi sweet bloggers! Hope you are all well!
Yesterday we celebrated our 20th year in France and even though it was hot weather, I baked an 'old fashioned' chocolate cake in the oven.

I was so surprised that it was a success, my first thought was, what did I do to deserve that?? Even the chocolate cream I made to pour over the top did not drip onto the plate, but stayed on the cake! That is how I like baking!
If any one is interested, here is the recipe and I can highly recommend it because the cake is made by putting every part of the recipe into the kitchen machine so that does the work for you.

I have been making some distressed backgrounds for stamping on - love doing that and using different stamps together. I mostly use Hero Arts stamps.

And some gold embossing.

My second card was inspired by Franziska, here is her blog - I just love her cards. I stamped the Hydrangea with white ink on a distressed background.

Finishing with a great postcard which arrived from Holland, a place called URK where traditional clothing might still be worn!

I hope the weather in the U.K. and the North of Europe improves. The drought in the USA, as I heard from my brother in Michigan is really bad and could do with some of the rain that other parts are having in abundance.

Happy creating!
Jacqueline

Several things

This is a card I made yesterday using a freebie download and the Hero Arts Real Flower stamps, as well as the wheat background.

I used distress inks, my favorite.

And then I want to show you this beautiful wedding card of Joël (my son) and Vivian, his future wife. No, I did not make them, they were made in Holland. I had to think of a lot of ladies I've seen who use acetate and embossing powder for their cards. It might inspire some of you too. I hope so.

Michaël, son nr. 4 was reunited with his girlfriend Roxane. They had been apart while Michaël was in Holland. I am very happy that he has found a lovely French girl who is also a beautiful Christian.

The weather is beautiful here - clear skies, dry, a lovely breeze and enjoyable. I have put a large table under a big Cyprus in the garden, a lovely place to have a meal and enjoy complete shadow. A tree is the best thing there is to sit under in hot weather! I love the sound of the wind blowing through this tree, so special.

 I'm finishing with two postcards I made and printed out. Sometimes I like to say thank you with a photo.

Have a lovely day!
Jacqueline

A Vintage card

I was playing with my scrap basket today to see which pieces I could puzzle together and arrived at a vintage card.

I used some printable downloads and strips of paper, as well as cutting out a flower.
I added some stamping when it was ready.

 Some picture of Hydrangeas I have taken recently in Holland.

Great News!

Dear ladies, on the 3rd of July I had my first exams after the Chemo and Radio Therapy which ended in December and am SO HAPPY AND BLESSED to report that the doctors could not find anything! I was so relieved. Of course one lives toward that day when the photos are made and the blood tests have been done. It seems that all I believed in, how I heard from God during that time and all the prayers from so many people all over the world, came together in a positive YES - yes, you did hear correctly, yes God does have a good plan for you for a HOPEFUL FUTURE and His Plans are perfect!
Just before I left to have those exams, Michaël, my youngest son gave me a small envelope with a card in it that he had forgotten to give to me before. It was from a beautiful lady who had prayed for me:

Can you imagine how encouraging that was!

I will remain under surveillance of course, which is only a good thing, but I am feeling very well. I was so praying that now my boys have returned to France and Joël is getting married in September that God would give me the strength I needed to care for everybody. I already have extra washing and cooking, but to my surprise, I am loving every minute of it.
I praise and thank the Lord from the depths of my being - He is Faithful for his children.

This photo was taken at the weekend, we were in Holland to pick up two of our boys who graduated from Bible school. We drove back home in 13 hours, going from 14°C to 30°C in the South of France!

Our boys were part of this group of first and second-year students.

So, after all the excitement and events of the last couple of months it has been so hard to find real inspiration, but I think it might be coming back now, just a little bit. It was Sally's card here that gave me that little extra inspiration I needed. Thanks Sally. I am also going to enter this into the Moxie Fab World: Stamp It! Cards Week for the theme 'Thank you' cards.