CASEd cards!

I have started a challenge over on the Hero Arts Flickr gallery here, to case a card that you have been wanting to case, but didn't get round to doing it.

There is so much beautiful inspiration on this gallery!

Ever since I saw Jayne's card here,  I have wanted to case it, and now I have with some new distress markers I got for Christmas. I have never had these colors before.

 

This is a case of Franziska's design here.
I used the same color distress markers as above. I had never heard of these names before: picked raspberry, mowed lawn and seedless preserves.
The Spring definition is Hero Arts and the other stamps are from Pink Paislee, the sentiment being from Stampin' Up.

  This card is a case of Kailash's lovely card here.

It uses one of the flowers in the Stamp your Story 'Remember set'.

Glad the Christmas card season is over now, I'm ready for Spring!

Have a lovely weekend!

Jacqueline

Happy Christmas and New Year!

Here's wishing you all a very Happy Christmas and every blessing for the year 2014!

Jacqueline

Winter Trees and Reindeer

Hi everyone. I haven't been very active on my blog lately. I have had a hard time, not physically but with very difficult situations in our Church where my DH was an elder. I have a husband who I love because he loves the truth and will not flinch for anything that is not Biblical or cannot see the light. Without going into details, it has quenched a lot of my love for writing about my walk in faith and also drained me of a lot of energy. I have been making cards but posted mainly on the Flickr gallery of Hero Arts, which is very dear to my heart because of all the wonderful ladies there. So I'm sharing a couple of cards which I made with the beautiful WINTER TREE Cling from Hero Arts, which has quickly become a 'go to' stamp at the moment, partnered with the die cut reindeer which sweet Sue Czosek sent me and also a lady called Sally, who I sadly don't see around very often anymore.
I will continue my story after the cards:

 

I stamped with the cling on patterned paper (thanks Sue!) and added dimension with the deer and some glitter to give it a feel of Christmas.

Stamped again with two different distress inks on patterned paper. The paper coincidently provided some nice shadows for the trees ! The deer is a smaller replica of the large one.

Here I tried a silhouette deer look and added a torn piece of embossed paper in the corner.

Here I also stamped on patterned paper.

Now to continue with an encouragement:

Yesterday evening we had a wonderful time with a couple who spoke and prayed with us in a revelatory way and I realized how much I had come to devalue and under-estimate who God called me to be. She prayed that God would confirm this in the coming days. This morning, God did confirm it, as I read this in my daily devotional (see below). I thought I would post this because sharing from the heart in transparency can just be the blessing someone else needs. I feel that the times are getting extremely dark out there and we need to be a beacon of light for others who are struggling in these end times!

‘As they wrestled together, the angel of the Lord asked Jacob, “What is your name?” He answered, “Jacob.” Then the angel said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, which means deceiver, but Israel, which means ‘a prince with God’, because you have struggled …and have overcome”’ (Genesis 32:27-28). God forced Jacob to look at his true identity. He wrestled him into a revelation of who he was—not who others said he was. His parents gave him his name and others called him by it, so he believed that’s who he’d always be. But God had a different plan for him. Hear this: you are not who others say you are. Why should they name you? Determine who you are before God. Let Him determine the level of your success. Why should others be allowed to live at their highest potential, but not you? You are more than your past, more than your education or CV, more than the color of your skin, more than your bank account, and more than your circumstances. Tell those who talk down to you and devalue you, ‘You’re confusing me with somebody else. God says I am a prince (or princess). And if I’m a prince (princess), then I have the right to be treated like one!’ You ask, ‘But is that true?’ Yes, the Bible says that when you walk with God, you are part of a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9). You are an overcomer (1 John 2:13-14). You are the head and not the tail, above and not beneath (Deuteronomy 28:13-14). So dry your tears, lift your head, square your shoulders and begin walking in your God-given identity.
This was the devotional today from the UCB pamphlet.

Blessings,
Jacqueline

Souvenir de belles choses

Yes I'm still here...been so busy with so many things that life brings on one's path, so I'm posting this little tag today to let you know I think of you!

I have used patterned paper, a tag stamp from Florilèges designs (French Company), a bird I found in my scrap basket, as well as other embellisments. I liked the way the snowflake had a hole in it, so I was able to attach that to the top with a ribbon.

Have a lovely sunday, we are having beautiful blue skies at the moment!
Jacqueline

Non-traditional Christmas colors

Hello, hope you are well!
Sunny this morning, cold this afternoon here in the South of France. I have recently purchased a tag-punch which will serve me well for all the little scraps I have.
I punched three and used some little cut-out leaves and a poinsettia flower to decorate.

The first tag is part of the Hero Arts Snowflake. The second is the Robin from Artistic Outpost and the third is patterned paper on which I stamped 'Winter'.

Have a lovely day!
Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends.
Jacqueline

My favorite technique

I have to say that the watercolor technique with distress inks is one of my favorites. I just purchased a very nice stamp from Hero Arts, called Winter Trees, CG471, and made a card with it as my background.

I stamped snowflakes onto the reindeer and used a definition stamp 'Joy to You'. The next card is the same stamp in green, a different design which shows how versatile this stamp is. I added some red liquid pearls to give a bit of depth.

My third Christmas card has been made with the same technique, just different stamps, but also from Hero Arts.

For the first time this week we have finally lit our fire to warm the house. It was not necessary until the middle of November, thats quite something.

Hope you are all well and thanks for popping by, as always!
Jacqueline

Reindeer

I haven't had the focus to make cards these days, and when I have tried the past days I seem to miss it completely. Just too occupied I think with other things.
Today is a National holiday and I was determined to make something as I really want some Christmas cards to send.

All these elements have been sent to me in the past by the lovely Sue Czosek. I distressed the deer and stamped with some leaves on her body. I added some Hero Arts gems on the tree and some glitter. Tore some white paper for a snowy effect.

This card was an idea I had for a long time and finally managed to make a vintage design combining the tree cling and the reindeer from Hero Arts. I stamped on some old music paper which had a stamp on it 'Le Signe' from the Music School - I think it is very old, so I kept that intact.

Thanks for your visit and see you soon I hope. Oh yes, just to mention that it was impossible for me to join in the Blog hop for Cath. I really missed that event, but I'm just going with the flow at the moment.

Jacqueline

Christmas wreath

Just to let you know I am still here, a little share.

I used all different kinds of stamps, mainly Hero Arts to stamp this wreath. I have been so busy with church activities, hospitality, etc; that I am totally not focused on card-making, hence the inspiration is not flowing at the moment.

I am way behind on visiting other blogs too.

Have a lovely week!
Jacqueline

Christmas Tag

Hello ladies, hope you are all well!
I have been in Batislava in Slovakia, Eastern Europe for eight days, for our yearly Derek Prince Ministries Reunion called FNO (Fellowship National Offices) where all the leaders of the DPM offices all around the world meet for sharing and prayer. If you want to read what DPM is, here is the link.

Batislava is a beautiful historical City which used to be under Communist Regime, but that was not so noticeable. The peaceful atmosphere in the City center and the lovely restaurants were a great attraction and addition to the wonderful time we had. Eating cabbage soup with dumplings outside, listening to live Jass was just great! Our Hotel was situated on the banks of the Danube river and we  had sunny weather every day!
Then we had a stop over on our way back in England, which gave me the chance to visit my brother and sister who live near Stansted Airport. I enjoyed that so very much, will have to do that more often.
I was asked by my sister to share on Monday evening at the Church's ladies night, which just happened to be at that time and I was able to share what the Lord had done in my life to a group of at least twenty ladies - so nice to be able to speak in English for a change. So, all in all, a lovely time, but lots of work when I got home, at the office as well, so not really much space to craft.

This is my niece Jennifer, me in the middle and my sister on the right.

I do have a little Christmas tag share. I don't think I will be able to make all my own Christmas cards this year, it seems to be such a daunting task to me nowadays.

 

I love this reindeer - thanks to Sue from Suzz's Stamping Spot for these. I found a stray tag which I stamped with a definition stamp from Hero Arts. Stamped the reindeer with two different snowflake stamps. Added a doily and the black panel was a scrap piece of paper.

I hope to be back soon but I have guests arriving on Thursday for a week and I will be preparing for a huge meal for 11 people, trying out recipes and preparing myself well in advance!

Have a lovely week and thanks so much for your support!

Jacqueline

Playing with old Music Book papers

These are colors that I love. I chose three stamps, two from Hero Arts, the Rose and the Postmark, and the subtle script which is part of a plate of Stamping Up stamps. This paper which I stamped on is very old, being the reverse side of a cover of a Music book.

My second card is inspired by a picture of a bird sitting on some beautiful pink flowers.

 

 I have never used this stamp which I stamped in pink before, and I'm so glad I kept it. It really is a leaf stamp, but who said it had to be inked up with green ink all the time..

My daughter-in-law (to be) has been playing in my craft room during the evenings. I love what she came up with here, and with her permission I am posting her recent card to show you.

Thanks for popping in!
Jacqueline

Our Beautiful World / WCMD

 For WCMD, I was asked by Cath to represent France in an International share on the Paper Crafts Connection Blog. The link is here, for those interested, and this was the card I shared. I wanted to go with the Fall colors that this season brings. All the leaf stamps are from Clearly Besotted.

 And now onto my favorite challenge for Sunday:

Theme at Our Beautiful World is October and this would be my favorite time in this season because of the change in color of the Vineyards. This little village is near to us and it was on my way to a little flea market that I came across this beautiful scene. I go every year now, just to see these beautiful colors.

 

Thanks for visiting and have a beautiful week! We are still having beautiful sunny weather!
Jacqueline

Our Beautiful World - Together and a Christmas Card

Hi ladies, I have been away from Thursday to Sunday in the North of France in the region of the Alps - just beautiful.

The prompt this week is TOGETHER, and these two love birds, one is my son, (the same ones in the canoe which I shared for STRONG) - sharing a double beach chair.

Dally and Dotty sharing a dirt bath together.

I'm also sharing the first Christmas card I've made this year. It's October already and I think I will be needing a couple of months, so I'd better get started.

I used the Post Card Stamp from Hero Arts. The trees are stamped and turned over so that the ink is not seen. I received the die cut poinsettias from Betty, so happy with them - thanks once again. The deer was sent by Sue with many more! Lovely to have a little stock of these. The postmark is a stamp which I received free with an order maybe five years ago from  Crafty Individuals. A lady asked me about that a while ago but I couldn't contact her. The definition stamp Joy to You is a Christmas stamp from Hero Arts.

Thanks always for visiting!
Jacqueline

Chicken Post

I am in the world of chickens at the moment! My card and the inspiration photo (which is from Pinterest) are below.

I used the Real Flower stamps from Hero Arts and the Memories sentiment is from the 'Remember' cling stamp your story set. The little bird was a stamp from Franziska which I love using.

I love Fall colors.

So as I have mentioned, I have three chickens in my garden. Every day I have at least three eggs, which is just wonderful as I love soft runny eggs, especially if they are free range.

This is Dilly and I'm sure she gives me extra large eggs.

This was what I found this morning - one of the eggs is two times as big as the others! It weighed in at 80grams! Dilly didn't disappoint me! The first thing my son said was, Aw, poor chicken....
Oh yes, the other two are Dally and Dotty. Their highlight of the week is a bowl of plain yoghurt (no sugar) and they have a party!

I hope to be back next week!
God bless,
Jacqueline

Our Beautiful World - Fall

I always look forward to the Sunday prompt now over on the Blog called 'Our Beautiful World, which can be found here. I love the fact that I can view photos from all around the World surrounding one theme. Fall has not really let itself be seen yet here in the South of France, it's still early days. We are having a beautiful Indian Summer at the moment with high temperatures. It's during October that the Vineyards and trees start their magical color change and start loosing their leaves.

But I can still show you some Fall photos from my part of World.

As you can see the vineyards are a golden brown color. Light showers start to fall again after the summer period and sometimes I can see two to three rainbows against the Black Mountains. This is a shot from my craft room.

The vineyards once more a golden-yellow/green color. The lightfall on the slightly cooler mornings give a pinky glow over the mountains - love this sight!

The golden colored vineyards are lit up by the moon early in the evening. Another typical picture of early Fall are the photos one can take of the moon.

So I hope you enjoyed my side of the World where Fall is just a beautiful season!!

Now I still wanted to share a card. And that fits this theme too of my post.It has a definition of Fall in French which is :  Automne n.m. : L'automne est l'une des quatre saisons des zones tempérées. Elle se place entre l'été et l'hiver. Du latin augeo signifiant augmenter, l'automne est donc la saison enrichie. A l'automne de ma vie : se dit de l'âge qui précède la vieillesse.

I wish you all a beautiful Sunday!
Jacqueline

An Autumn share and.. onions..

Hi everyone - You must be wondering why I mentioned onions in my heading today?? Further down you can read my little story.

First of all I'm sharing a card I made for this season. I am still finding it hard to make a card that I like, it used to be so easy, but I'm struggling lately.

I used a leaf-cling from Hero Arts and added some gold glitter. I used distress markers.


Well, I have to tell you what happened with the onions.
I was a bit discouraged this week with quite a lot of  things. I'm sure you have the same now and again. So I went to sit at the Lord's feet and started... well... emptying my heart, complaining a bit, but just being open. Before I finished I heard myself saying, and I need onions for the meal tonight and I don't have any - and I'm not going to the shops to get them either!!! I was just frustrated!
Anyway, life goes on and around six o'clock I see my son coming up the drive, he gets out of his car with a bag of onions in his hand. Oh, I said, how did you know I needed onions?? Very surprised he looked at me and said, I didn't know you needed onions, but I was in the shop and saw that if you bought two bags, you got one free, so I thought of you!!!!
I was so, so amazed at the Grace of God - can you imagine. He hears us before we even utter a word! He knows our thoughts, but mercifully, he also knows our hearts, that life can be demanding and He chooses just to bless us, to encourage and really say : I knew you needed this today! Don't you just love His Heart! I know I do.
I had to think of this Psalm in the Bible:

You have searched me, Lord,
    and you know me.
² You know when I sit and when I rise;
    you perceive my thoughts from afar.
³ You discern my going out and my lying down;
    you are familiar with all my ways.
⁴ Before a word is on my tongue
    you, Lord, know it completely.
Ps.139:1-4

Have a lovely weekend!
Jacqueline

A collage card and a share

I have not been very successful with card-making these last weeks. I often have to revisit old cards to try and get some inspiration. Even with all the lovely inspiration on Pinterest, it seems hard to get ideas if they just don't come. But, I did manage a collage card on Sunday.

Thanks to Sue, of Suzz's Stamping Spot, for the beautiful birthday package she sent me. The background panel paper was part of a lovely package of patterned papers, amongst other things! Photo below:

 

Then I wanted to share a couple of birthday gifts I received (I was very spoiled this year).

This was an idea of my two sons, a place to put the newly laid eggs in. I can collect three per day and today they were all next to each other in the same nest - perfect!

Some beautiful flowers.

Thanks for your lovely visits!

Have a great week!

Jacqueline

Our Beautiful World - YELLOW

Happy Sunday! I have had such a busy week, which took away any inspiration I might have had to make cards. I hope my inspiration comes back. I will still be posting cards, but its a busy time of the year at the moment!

We have acquired three chickens, which means three fresh eggs every day. OK it brings work with it, but I love being outdoors and I don't mind a bit of cleaning. I can recycle the droppings on the garden and even the ashes from our wood fire work as a disinfectant should the case arise. Wednesday I celebrated my birthday and this weekend Michaël (my son) and Roxane celebrated their engagement, so I was busy baking. I made some chocolate cupcakes with a Blackcurrant paste and almond wedges over the top.

I am entering these into Our Beautiful World, the theme being 'Yellow' this week. The link is here.

My Zucchini and Tomato tart.. I used to think that Zucchini's were only green, but they are the most beautiful color yellow as well!

A tree that grows in the Southern warmer countries (thus France)  is called MIMOSA. It has very delicate flowers which have the most heavenly scent!

 My beautiful Hybiscus.

And last but not least, a beautiful Sunflower field. The season has just finished here and now is the time for making Sunflower oil.
These were the 'yellows' from my country, the South of France.



Have a lovely day! We are having lovely yellow sunshine today too!!
Jacqueline

Holiday share and two Mason Jar cards

Hello ladies! Hope you are well.
Got back from the North East coast of Spain (Costa Brava) Wednesday evening. DH and I had a wonderful time together, fantastic weather, good food (delicious fish dishes and salads) and I'd like to say a good rest, but the amount of climbing, walking and swimming I did, didn't rest my body at all. Not that I did excessive things, but just a change from the normal lets itself be felt. Anyway, they say, a change is as good as a rest and I Amen that. I had a fall against the rocks on Tuesday, being 20 metres above sea-level and only having the rocks as protection! My husband got the shock of his life as I nearly fell into a crevice - don't know what would have happed then. I'm scratched and blue but still healthy and crafting :) I thank the Lord for his protection!

Here we are at our favorite fish restaurant, it is directly on the beach and the view of the sea from where we sit is breathtaking, especially the light-fall in this season.

This is the view from our Hotel balcony. We went to the same Hotel, called St. Rock as we did for our Honeymoon. This was taken as the sun was setting.

Now onto a few cards I made with a free download of a Mason Jar image.

I found this image as a free download, as I don't have a stamp. The first card has a jar which was printed on vellum paper and embossed in gold (while the inks was still wet. I attached little punched out butterflies to the inside of the jar and decorated it. The second card is a print out on Card stock and afterwards I filled up my jar with little shells from the Antique Engravings stamp set from Hero Arts.

Thanks for your visit!
Jacqueline