Tag and cookies

Hello! I hope your Christmas was peaceful and enjoyable! No snow here, in fact we had such high temperatures that it felt like a summer's day here.

I'm sharing two little projects (in one photo) that I enjoyed doing last night. I found a little box full of old scraps so I designed this little tag with them. The tag is a download which I printed out twice in two different sizes. I have to say that I love the Dogwood stamp. I used distress markers and sprayed with water.
The little bag to the right, is a Magazine project from Daphne's Diary, which probably some of my Dutch friends will recognize. 

 For Christmas I treated myself to a little Chocolate mould biscuit set. I saw it at the local supermarket for a good price. Loved the French theme. Here is the result.

I am getting in the crafting mood once again and just love Pinterest for inspiration too.
Hoping you have a wonderful, creative and BLESSED New Year!
Jacqueline

Christmas mail

I wanted to make a little Christmas mail just reminiscing over the past year - a year full of blessing and encouragement. My last six-monthly appointment this month gave me a clean report. I can only thank the Heavenly Father for His constant care. One son got married, David went to a new Home. I am still in love with my husband, something to be unbelievably happy about! When I see all my boys sitting next to each other in Church then I only have a deep, deep, thankfulness which wells up inside and bursts in praise to God!
I also had a time when I started to complain. I felt cut off from the world. My latest trip to Holland and the wonderful counseling of a great friend of mine helped me to make a decision - I will be where God wants me to be because of who He IS, not because of what He does. It has brought a new peace into my life! Having a relationship with somebody means you love them for who they are, right? The same goes for God!! I just want to be a blessing to other people and share His Peace and Light.

Our family picture

Another feat was that I made my first real English Christmas cake, I didn't know I could do it, but enjoyed the process immensely, especially making Marzipan,  it was easier than I thought. So, I made four small ones, as I thought they would make nice Christmas gifts, but only managed to give one away :)

This is the only one I have left. I think I received the piece of lace from Susanne, Illinois - everything comes in handy! So now I have my mince pies, sausage rolls, spicy pears and peaches and other Christmas specials ready. Tomorrow I am going to marinate my turkey (which is called brining). The recipe is here for those interested. I made my own 'bouquet garni' from the herbs I have in the garden. Tied a piece of string around them and put them in a little yoghurt pot so they don't dry out.

Then I have a Chistmas card to share. I have a lovely basket which carries the cards I have received in the past years, it is a treasure chest! I love to look through them for inspiration. I got inspired to make this one using distress markers. Gives such a different look to using a distress pad.

And I made a couple of vintage tags which I added to two gift packages.

To close I wanted to quote a devotional which just confirmed what I wrote above. It speaks volumes to me and I want to cherish it for the coming year and work with it.

Quote

A Father and a Friend
Luke 11:1--13
"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find ..." (v. 9)

The great danger of a quiet time is that we will use it as an opportunity to petition God rather than to know Him and be known by Him. I thought back to a statement I remember reading in C. S. Lewis's book, Prayer: Letters to Malcolm, to the effect that the older he got the less involved he became in petitionary prayer. "The strange thing is," said Lewis, "the more I pray for things the less my prayers seem to get answered. I think God is leading me on to ask less and less for things and more and more for Himself." Then he expressed this profound thought: "Prayer is taking part in the process of being known." I glanced up as I wrote those words and looked out at the trees in my garden.

God knows everything there is to know about those trees, but they are not persons so they cannot join in the process of being known. God knows all there is to know about me, but that objective knowledge is quite different from the process of drawing close to Him in prayer and letting Him know me through my opening up to Him. One is objective knowledge, the other experiential. And what is breathtakingly marvelous about all this is that in every spiritual tête-to-tête I hold with God, He seeks to draw my soul into such a relationship with Him that I know Him as a Father and a Friend. Such knowledge is almost too good to be true. But also too good not to be true.
Unquote

Just wanted to say THANK YOU for being so kind, for your visits, your lovely feedback and for the beautiful, inspirational work you do on your blogs. I really enjoy your company!

May God's richest blessing be yours in 2013 and Happy Christmas!

Jacqueline

Vintage Christmas and revisiting a Christmas Tag

I have been playing with some Christmas vintage images to make a couple of cards which I know I will need in the coming weeks.

and this one

 A long time ago there used to be a challenge called 'Tag Tuesday' which was hosted by Louise Granlund. That used to be a little highlight of my week. I thought it would be nice to revisit one of the Christmas tags I made at that time. We were to use three certain colors, which I found very hard. The nice thing about revisiting a card or tag is that you already have the design and all you need to do is use different elements to get a totally different look.

This is my tag for 2012

And this is my old Christmas tag from 2010. I made it into a tag-card, it opens up for a written message.

 Wishing you all the best with the Christmas preparations.
Jacqueline

Frames from Stampendous

A dear blogging friend of mine, Susanne, sent me the new frames from Stampendous. I was so excited and saw straight away many possibilities incorporating other stamps into the frames. This afternoon I worked out a design I had in my head with the elegant Reindeer stamp from Hero Arts and embossed in white.

I wanted to start adding... a sentiment, more pearls, a ribbon, and then I thought, no just leave it like it is.

This afternoon I am going to start on my mince pies, I want to be well prepared this Christmas!

Before I go, a photo of the Ark of Noah we visited last week. It is docked in Dordrecht in Holland and will be traveling around the world in the future, to bring the Biblical Message into many homes.

Jacqueline

Busy.. and a couple of Christmas Cards

This is such a busy time of the year. I have been writing my Christmas cards and thinking about the Christmas preparations. I have the tree up and the wreaths - so cozy!
My heart has found much more rest since Friday when we picked up David to find him happy, relaxed and upbeat! I was so thankful to God as I had prayed all week that I would find him settled and at peace. Change takes time to get used too and we have to give ourselves and other people time to adapt.

This is a joint effort Christmas card. Susanne sent me this deer diecut a long time ago and the snowflakes are from my American friend Betty, who visited me in the summer. I got the idea for this card from Pinterest and it was one of those cards I just had to case. I also embossed some snowflakes on the patterned paper. I can't take credit for the stitching because it was already on the paper, which I believe also came from Susanne. So you see how much we need each other in crafting!

Edit: Just adding another card which was made with a different die cut. I used the Misty Garden pattern background stamp from Hero Arts and stamped a Christmas definition three times. Added some die-cut snowflakes and it was done very quickly. I will be adding this card (which I made today 05/12) to the challenge on Simon Says stamp blog who are asking for snowflake cards.

 And another one.

Other than that, I have been cooking - since I got introduced (via the TV and books) to a very inspiring cook (Jamie Oliver), I have been on a discovery trip and want to get hold of as many herbs, spices etc. that I can!

This was so nice.
On Sunday we came home from Church to find that one of our shoes had been put in front of the fire with a burlap wrapped present and a poem. This had to be our son and daughter in law as they excused themselves from the church service earlier than usual. They had been preparing all day Saturday as they made their own Pepernoten, which are sweet spicy little biscuits, which were in our shoes, and a lovely poem for everybody. It was such a lovely treat and so thoughtful of them.
This is what they call Sinter Klaas in the Netherlands, and it is usually celebrated around the 5th of December.

Jacqueline