Pages

Be Joyful

Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in EVERYTHING by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the PEACE OF GOD, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:4-7

These are verses I memorized years ago and they are written on my heart. There are times when I still need to remember not to be anxious, but I eventually listen to my heart saying these verses. I didn't really understand what the "peace of God" was until I experienced it. It's having peace inside you, even when you're going through heartbreaking situations and trials. It does "surpass ALL understanding" and you know it comes from GOD alone. Praise the Lord for His wonderful promises!

I love, love, love what I do. I am passionate about the things I create and the talents God has placed in me. I SO appreciate the time you take to look at my things and the comments you all leave me!

Blessings to you!

Kathy

Counting My Blessings

About Me

My name is Kathy and I have been creating things with my hands since I was very little. I'm a stay home mom. I have two handsome boys at home, Daniel (17) Cameron (15). I love the Lord and I depend on God every day to help me and allow me to use the talents He's given me.
I am so thankful that I can do what I absolutely love, creating things. My creations are truely Joyfully Made!

FTC Declaration

FTC Declaration - I declare that I am a freelance designer. I currently receive or have received in the past products that I promote and endorse as a freelance designer for free or at a discount from the following companies: Heartfelt Creations, Our Daily Bread Designs, CottageCutz, The Robin's Nest, Scor-pal, Paper Temptress, Elphine House Australia, Creative Embellishments, Really Reasonable Ribbon. Any product that I use in my designs and recommend, I do with complete honesty. I have not and would not recommend products I do not personally love.

I hope you like my project and tutorial and it gives you a little inspiration for gift giving. I think this would be a nice Valentine's Day or Wedding Gift. Please visit the ODBD Blog and check it out!

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Just a quick note to let you know about a sale happening at Our Daily Bread Designs!!! You can read all about it on their Blog, but here's an exerpt from Kelley:

I hope you all had a safe and blessed Christmas, making wonderful memories with family and friends!!

It is now time to let you know about our Inventory Reduction Sale, going on NOW until December 31, 2012, 12 midnight EST. We are overstocked on the following sets and singles so we are cutting prices by 40%!

Remember, we do have a USPS First Class shipping option of $2.50 for 1-2 stamp sets only (US only)!

By the way......be sure to LIKE us on Facebook, where you'll have easy access to our blog feed along with daily inspiration posted by our fabulous Design Team. LIKEOur Daily Bread Designs on Facebook by December 31, 2012, for a chance to win one of three $25 ODBD Gift Certificates!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and were able to spend time with friends and family!

Today I have a card I made using the Garden Romance Collection to show you!

This is such a pretty image of the mailbox with flowers from the Special Delivery Set and it goes perfectly with the sitting bird from the Brookside Manor Set. All are colored with Prismacolor Pencils and popped up with pop dots.

Please visit the Heartfelt Creations Blog to see all the gorgeous creations from the design team this week...so many wonderful ideas there!

Monday, December 24, 2012

It's time for a new Shining the Light Challenge at Our Daily Bread Designs!

This week's challenge is for two weeks!!

The challenge is:

Anything Goes with Our Daily Bread Designs Stamps

To make the challenge even more fun, we will be giving out a prize, a $15 gift certificate to be used toward stamps at the Our Daily Bread Designs store!! Entries for the prize must be submitted by Sunday, January 7that 8 p.m. EST. One random winner will be chosen and announced next Saturday.

While it is not required to use Our Daily Bread Designs images and sentiments on your creations, we would love to see them if you have them. As a way of recognizing those who do use Our Daily Bread Designs stamps, we will again be choosing three or more of our participants for the Shining the Light Award . In order to qualify for this award or join the challenge, however, you must use Our Daily Breadstamps and have your submission added to Mr. Linky by Sunday, January 7th at 8 p.m. EST. If you upload your creations to Splitcoast Stampers or any other online gallery, please use the keyword is ODBDSLC136. When creating your posts on blogs please include a link to the challenge.

Here's my card for the challenge this week:

I used the Sew Special Set for my card. I love this quilt and rocking chair image. I colored it with my Prismacolor Pencils and mineral spirits and then cut it with the matching ODBD Custom Die and added it to the card with pop dots. Here's a picture of the set and die.

I made the card base using the Decorative Labels 8 Die from Spellbinders. Such a pretty die for the image on this.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

It's time for some inspiration from Heartfelt Creations! This week I have a wall hanging made with lots of blue roses.

Here's another picture that shows the silk bow for hanging. (Note: click on the picture for a closer view and complete instructions are at the end of the post.)

The main image of the 3 roses is done using a Limited Edition stamp, Classic Rose, that will only be available at Heartfelt Creations until 12/31st. The sentiment, flowers, and leaf embellishments are are still available. I did lots of coloring on this, which is my favorite thing to do! I orignally had the main image in a black frame and didn't like the way it came out. I'm much happier now with it as a wall hanging and adding embellishments to it.

The Christmas Giveaway Is Happening Today: As a thank you to all our loyal HC customers, we are giving away $20 Dollar Gift Certificates today, December 19th from 7PM - 9PM EST. Here is the link to the giveaway page: www.heartfeltcreations.us/getmygift. Once the page goes live you submit your information and a $20 gift certificate will automatically be emailed. Let all your friends know and make sure you are available at that time! Restrictions: one per household, register between 7PM - 9PM EST on December 19th, must be redeemed by January 19th, 2013.

Limited Edition Stamps: During the month of December we will not be releasing new products. We will continue our normal schedule of the second Wednesday of the month in January. December is a good time to purchase stamps from our Limited Edition section. Those stamps will only be available until Decemer 31st. So grab them before they are gone.
I'm submitting this to the Word Art Wednesday Challenge #59 - uplifting sentiments. Also, to the Really Reasonable Ribbon Challenge #62 - Anything Goes & Ribbon.

Base: With Labels 23 Grand, cut piece with blue cardstock
and next size up with Chance DP and glue together.Image: Stamp Classic Rose image on Solar White with Onyx
Black Ink.Color with pencils and die
cut with Labels 23 Grand.Mat with Old
Olive cut at 4” x 5”, Night of Navy cut at 4 ¼” x 5 ¼”, and glue together.Cut piece of Solar White at 4 7/8” x 6 7/8”,
emboss with Elegance Embossing Folder, distress edges, and glue to
image/mats.For sentiment, stamp on
Solar White with Onyx Black and heat emboss with Detail Clear powder.Die cut with Fancy tags.Die cut another tag with blue cardstock, cut
in half and glue to sides of tag so slight amount shows.Add both image and sentiment to base with pop
dots as shown.

Embellishments:On
Solar White with Onyx Black Ink stamp 4 of the smallest flower, 1 next size up
(Open Vintage Floret) and 1 each of the 2 smallest open flowers (Mini Vintage
Floret).Color all with pencils and cut
out with match dies.Shape as desired
and assemble one of each size together to form a flower.On Chance DP with VersaMark Ink, stamp the
Bella Rose Leaves and heat emboss with Old Fashioned Olive EP.Cut out with matching die and shape.Add all flowers and leaves as shown.Add adhesive pearls.Make bow with Bow-Easy.Make 2 holes with Crop-A-Dial for hanging
with ribbon/bow.Cover knots with a
spacer bead with a pearl glued to center.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Snowflake or Snow!!!- use designer paper, embellishments, images, or sentiments that include or use the word snowflakes or snow

To make the challenge even more fun, we will be giving out a prize, a $15 gift certificate to be used toward stamps at the Our Daily Bread Designs store!! Entries for the prize must be submitted by Sunday, December 23rdat 8 p.m. EST. One random winner will be chosen and announced next Saturday.

While it is not required to use Our Daily Bread Designs images and sentiments on your creations, we would love to see them if you have them. As a way of recognizing those who do use Our Daily Bread Designs stamps, we will again be choosing three or more of our participants for the Shining the Light Award . In order to qualify for this award or join the challenge, however, you must use Our Daily Breadstamps and have your submission added to Mr. Linky by Sunday, December 23rd at 8 p.m. EST. If you upload your creations to Splitcoast Stampers or any other online gallery, please use the keyword is ODBDSLC135. When creating your posts on blogs please include a link to the challenge.

Here is my card for the challenge this week! It's hard to photo the gold embossing and glitter paper and ribbon, but I did my best. I once again used the Snowflake Background and Snowy Blessings Stamp Sets, so beautiful! Here's a picture of the stamp sets in case you missed them last week.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Today I have a Christimas card using one of my favorite Christmas stamps from Heartfelt Creations.

The main image on this is the Festive Yuletide Doorway Set. This is such a beautiful set! I did lots of coloring on this one with my pencils and mineral spirits...what I love to do! The sentiment I used in from the Holiday Haven Set. I did lots of fussy cutting on this to give it added dimension which you can see in this side picture.

The image is beautiful without the fussy cutting, but I thought it would be fun to make it special!

I'm submitting this to the Word Art Wednesday Challenge #58.
Also, to the TLC398 Challenge at Split Coast Stampers to "All a Little Dimension".

Image: Stamp door image on Solar White with Onyx Black Ink 3
times.Color one completely with
pencils.For snow apply Art Institute
Glue and Shell White Art Glitter.Trim
image as shown to fit on card, distress edges, and ink with Amaretto.On the second image, color the sled, bow, 3
flowers on wreath, bunny, ivy leaves, and bird at bottom, then fussy cut these
images. On third image, “color” the snow with the glitter on the doorknob and
above the door, then fussy cut these images.Add all cut images to main image with pop dots.Add Champagne Microbeads to the wreath flower
centers with glue.

For the flower, on Solar White with Black Onyx Ink stamp 2
of the smallest flowers from Petite Poinsettia Set and heat emboss with Detail
Clear.Color with Perfect Plumeria Ink
and make up applicator, and darken with Black Raspberry Pencil.Die cut with matching dies and shape with
tool kit and mat.For the leaves, Stamp
3 of the third smallest flower on Palo Verde paper with Onyx Black Ink and heat
emboss with Detail Clear Embossing Powder.Die cut and shape.Glue all
together as shown and add adhesive pearls.Make bow and add to card with flower.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

It's time for a new Shining the Light Challenge at Our Daily Bread Designs!

This week's challenge:

Noel word challenge- Use the letters in Noel to create a card.

To make the challenge even more fun, we will be giving out a prize, a $15 gift certificate to be used toward stamps at the Our Daily Bread Designs store!! Entries for the prize must be submitted by Sunday, December 23rdat 8 p.m. EST. One random winner will be chosen and announced next Saturday.

While it is not required to use Our Daily Bread Designs images and sentiments on your creations, we would love to see them if you have them. As a way of recognizing those who do use Our Daily Bread Designs stamps, we will again be choosing three or more of our participants for the Shining the Light Award . In order to qualify for this award or join the challenge, however, you must use Our Daily Breadstamps and have your submission added to Mr. Linky by Sunday, December 23rd at 8 p.m. EST. If you upload your creations to Splitcoast Stampers or any other online gallery, please use the keyword is ODBDSLC134. When creating your posts on blogs please include a link to the challenge.

Friday, December 7, 2012

Hope everyone is doing well! I made this card for my husbands' birthday this week and thought I would post it, especially since it's a masculine card!

Masculine cards aren't very easy to do, but these Heritage Scrapbook Pages from Hot Off the Press make it kind of easy. These are the same papers I used a couple of years ago to make a bunch of cards which you can see in my post here. On this card, I mostly used leftovers from the cards I made back then.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

It's time for some inspiration from Heartfelt Creations! This week I made a very simple card using the Vintage Floret Collection. I keep thinking that it's missing something whis is probably because I didn't use any ribbon or a bow, but I didn't want to cover up the pretty designs on this.

The main panel for this card is done with the Vintage Floret Designer Paper. I added flowers to match the paper and create a flower cascade. I finished it by adhering it to an embossed card base and adding a sentiment. I hope this give you a little inspiration this week!

Image/Embellishments:
Cut designer paper with blue flowers as shown at 2 1/2" x 5 1/2" and cut
Mello Moss at 2 11/16” x 5 1/2".Ink edges of both with Mello Moss.Glue together as shown and add to card base with pop dots.

On Solar White with London Fog Ink, stamp the smallest open
flower twice, then one each of the next two sizes.Color with Aegean Blue Ink and make-up
applicator, cut with matching dies, and shape as desired.On Mello Moss paper with Mello Moss Ink,
stamp one of the pointed shaped flowers.Cut with the matching die, ink edges with Mello Moss Ink, and shape as
desired.Cut pointed flower to
separate into 3 leaves and 2 leaves.Add
all to card as shown with glue.Stamp
sentiment on the designer paper with Mello Moss and cut with Large Oval
Punch.Cut Mello Moss paper with
Scalloped Oval Punch.Ink edges of both
with Mello Moss and glue together.Add
to card with pop dots and glue.Add
adhesive pearls as desired.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

It's time for a new Shining the Light Challenge at Our Daily Bread Designs!

This week's challenge:

Is a Sketch!!

To make the challenge even more fun, we will be giving out a prize, a $15 gift certificate to be used toward stamps at the Our Daily Bread Designs store!! Entries for the prize must be submitted by Sunday, December 9that 8 p.m. EST. One random winner will be chosen and announced next Saturday.

While it is not required to use Our Daily Bread Designs images and sentiments on your creations, we would love to see them if you have them. As a way of recognizing those who do use Our Daily Bread Designs stamps, we will again be choosing three or more of our participants for the Shining the Light Award . In order to qualify for this award or join the challenge, however, you must use Our Daily Bread stamps and have your submission added to Mr. Linky by Sunday, December 9th at 8 p.m. EST. If you upload your creations to Splitcoast Stampers or any other online gallery, please use the keyword is ODBDSLC133. When creating your posts on blogs please include a link to the challenge.

Here's my take on the challenge this week:

I love this image which is called "Violet". They look a lot like AfricanViolets that I use to grow. I'm into this "blue" coloring mood lately, so I chose blue again! I used a lot of texture with the embossing folders to go with this on the different layers along with my lame attempt to make a flag with the square punch!

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Hello friends! Welcome to the Our Daily Bread Designs December Release Blog Hop! If you got here from Sandee’sBlog, you are in the right place! If not, you might want to start at the ODBD Blog so you don’t miss anything! Here are the details for this month’s hop:

Hop to each Designer’s Blog and leave a comment

Return to the ODBD Blog and tell us you completed the hop, and note any problems you had

There will be 3 prizes of $20.00 Gift Certificates and 1 GRANDPRIZE of $75.00 Gift Certificate toward stamps in the ODBD Store!!!

You have until 8pm EST Dec 2 to complete the hop, and winners will be announced on the ODBD Blog on Dec. 3

Now, on to my project:

For my creation I used the Poinsettia Wreath Set from Our Daily Bread Designs to make a card. I love this wreath image! I decided to make this with blues and I love the contrast with the white!