Card for two challenges

Good Morning. I want to share a card today which I made for two challenges. The first one is ColorQ which can be found here and the second is Freshly Made Sketches, which can be found here.

I stamped a panel with four different stamps, added a sentiment from Hero Arts and a little Bird which I love from Inkadinkado.

We are having the most beautiful Indian Summer ever!

I am enjoying some time off work just to have some much needed recreation being outdoors and with the family before the wedding of Michaël and Roxane.

My little granddaughter is all smiles and I had a lovely time with her yesterday.

Three cards with one background stamp

Today I want to share three cards, so different, but with the same background stamp.

I built on the background in different ways, with colors and stamps.

Virginia's View Challenge: Shaped cards and Seréna!

Virginia's Challenge for this month, is shaped cards and I wanted to have a go, although quite late. Here is the link. My card is from a die-cut which I cut around on double paper with a fold at the top.

I used Hero Arts Flowers on a stem stamp with distress inks, nothing new there!

And look at this little lady, only six weeks old - already standing on her Daddy's lap!She's such a little darling, I could look at her for hours and just enjoy her.

I love how she is looking at her dad here with the recognition in her eyes.

Rodney is doing well which is a great relief and we are enjoying having him with us.
Thank you all for the uplifting comments, I'm so grateful for them all!

René's brother's family are staying in a holiday home in a Village next to ours, so we are enjoying spending time together too.

Collage and good news

Hi everyone! We are having hot, humid weather here and that influences the crafting mood as we don't have air conditioning! France is used to having dry heat but the last several years there has been a change in the weather and the French summers can get hot and sticky, which I do not like at all!

 

Letting the patterned paper do the talking, I stamped over it with the Post Card Tag stamp and added some Nature images. This is the style of creating I really love and probably my favorite to do.

 Today Rodney is coming home. After a second operation to remove some blockages in his intestine, he is stable enough to leave the hospital. We have arranged a little welcome party and will be eating his favorite Pizza this evening. Looking forward to it.

Until next time, and hope you are well!
Jacqueline

Quick scrap cards and an Update

Hello, hope everybody is doing well!
Just got back from a Wedding in the U.K. on Monday evening. Had a very nice time with family and friends and it was refreshing to have a change of air (as they say in France) and have a break from the routine.
I have an update on Rodney which I will share after the cards.

Sometimes its good just to look what is lying on your desk and assemble a card with what you find. For instance, this is what I had on my desk this morning when I looked through a little pile (see above). At first glance it doesn't seem to coordinate, but it does as you will below. There is even a little watermark at the top of the patterned paper which I had to cover up with a flower (from the scrap basket).

So this is what the little pile of scraps became. A card to send to somebody with an encouraging message inside!

Then my second card was just lying on my desk unfinished. So, I finished it to add to this post today.
I used some card stock patterned paper as my card base and some free downloads. The big sentiment in the middle is from Hero Arts.

Now a little update. Yesterday we went to see Rodney who is still in Intensive Care. It was a big operation and quite a shock to see him with two big holes in his lower body fitted with bags and tubes to drain all fluids from his intestines, well what is left of them. He has a huge bruise on the right side of his body apparently caused by internal bleeding. It is marked off so that they can monitor its spreading because it has to be stopped. He has a Catheter in his neck for feeding and other fluids and medicines he has to take, as they couldn't find a vein in his arms suitable enough. He has strappings around his legs so as not to get any blood clots.Yesterday he had a temporary intestine paralysis and was in pain. He is attached to a lot of machinery and everything is registered into a computer. He cannot get out of bed, nurses have to wash and help him with everything and he has been in IC for five days now. But he can still talk and laugh and we enjoyed being with him - but oh boy - Please GOD help this guy recover!! It was such a privilege to pray with him and to feel the presence of the Lord in his hospital room!
I have been very encouraged with your feedback and would love to ask for your continued support! Thank you!

Summertime in my garden and news

I am just sharing about my garden today as many times during an afternoon when I am home from work, I see things and I think - I have to grab my camera..

 

 I didn't know that a green tree frog was sleeping undisturbed in this flower pot, until I decided it needed some water...out it popped, with earth on its nose, looking around thinking what hit him!

And then he lifted his back leg carefully onto the side of the pot, thinking, I've got to get out of here!

Then my chickens made me laugh too,  they come and join me when I sit outside and sit in the shade under this chair. I do believe that Dally is taking a nap!

My wild plum tree - gave a lovely harvest this year and I made a thick syrup for in deserts with it. I don't use sugar in my jams,  honey is much healthier.

My lavender bushes are unstoppable and provide a beautiful scent along the driveway all through the summer. Then the Oleanders that bloom richly every year.

My last picture is my son Rodney, who has had his Colon removed this morning due to his illness. After surgery he will wait for two months before the next operation when a reconstruction shall be done to give him a new Colon allowing him to live as much a normal life as possible without all the side effects the medicine would otherwise give. I am a bit nervous about it all, but my hope and trust is and will be in the Lord as is the case with Rodney too. He will be in intensive care for 48 hours.
Edit: we just got news that everything went well!

Thanks to everyone who was so kind to visit me over on the Penny Black blog.
Have a sunny weekend!

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Just to let you know that I was asked to be guest designer on the Penny Black blog for this week, every day I will showcase one of their beautiful stamps, or a stencil. I love their latest botanical stamps.

I would love for you to visit me there at this link. Thank you so much.

A meadow scene I made inspired by a challenge on the Color Q blog of a very trendy dress; using several of my solid flower stamps which are some of my all time favorites.

News about Rodney is not good. He is once again in hospital, he is too weak to stay at home and the doctors are concerned. He is not eating as he should due to pain in his gums and his intestines. It looks inevitable that he will have to have an operation- however our faith and hope in the God of Healing remains.

This is Part Two of the Eagle and Parrot story that I shared last week:

Of Parrots and Eagles, Part Two
by Charles R. Swindoll

1 Peter 1:13

Eagle thinkers ask the hard questions, take strategic risks, search hard for the whole truth, and soar high above mediocrity. Parrot people enjoy the predictable, routine, rehearsed words of others.
The church is overrun with parrots and virtually devoid of eagles. Too harsh? You decide. Who are the eagles today who offer fresh-from-the-mountain insights about world missions, biblical doctrines, evangelism, Christian education, apologetics, and the disciplines of the faith? Who are those who forge out creative ways of communicating the truths of Scripture so that it's more than a hodge-podge of borrowed thoughts and rehearsals of the obvious which tend to paralyze the critical faculties of active minds?
Eagles are independent thinkers.
It's not that they abandon the orthodox faith or question the authority of God's inerrant Word . . . it's simply that they are weary of being told, "Stay on the perch and repeat after me." Eagles have built-in perspective, a sensitivity that leaves room for fresh input that hasn't been glazed by overuse.
The church today is in desperate need of eagles---people who come to their tasks with the abandonment of that keen-minded Jew from Tarsus. If you need an illustration, read Romans. Like a careful midwife, Paul assists in the birth of doctrine, allowing it to breathe and scream, stretch and grow, as God the Creator designed it to do. And he isn't afraid to say it for the first time, using a whole new vocabulary and style that is as original as it is accurate. There's not as much as a parrot feather on one page of that one-of-a-kind letter.
So then, which will it be? If you like being a parrot, stay put. But if you're an eagle at heart, what are you doing on that perch? Do you have any idea how greatly you're needed to soar and explore? Do you realize how out of place you are inside that cage? Even though others may not tell you, eagles look pretty silly stuck on a perch picking over a tasteless pile of dried seeds.
I've never heard anybody ask, "Eagle want a cracker?"
Unquote.


 I hope you all have a wonderful week. We are having a visit from René's brother's family for three days and then are going to a Wedding in England, if the situation with Rodney allows us.

Thank you for your visit!