One of my new favorite things (and you will never believe)

is cooking dinner!!! Shocker, I know, those of you who know me well are laughing or screaming (the horror, the horror!) unless you have talked me to in the last three weeks and already know I have truly been converted into a domestic cooking goddess, thanks to The Six O'Clock Scramble. I just had to pass it on because I kind of feel like I discovered one of the secrets of life!!


This is a meal planning service (recommended by Oprah among others, started by cookbook author and food columnist Aviva Goldfarb) that emails you a list of 5 nutritious, tasty and FAST (30 minute) meals per week plus a shopping list. The dish above is just one meal I made last week from the plan: Shrimp Pilaf with Asian Cucumber Salad and it looked so pretty and colorful on my plate I had to take a pic for you! My family is trying SO many new foods and I love the variety of what we are eating, that is one of the main reasons I like to go out to eat , to have something different or I am craving a certain ethnic food, and if you know me, I like "different"! One of my favorite (of many awesome features!) features of the service is you can substitute different recipes for any of the days and it will UPDATE your shopping list with the NEW menu ingredients for the week, how cool is that?? They only send 5 since you might want to go out the other night or have leftovers, but you could easily grab two more recipes to have something for every night!

Meals are rated by customers so you can search the highest rated recipes or you can also search by ingredient if there is something you are in the mood for or want to use up. I am lovin how easy the meals are to assemble (and it is "cooking for dummies", let me tell you, the recipe for the optional side is right below the entree and the directions tell you things like while this is cooking, go chop the cucumbers! etc) AND how I only have to go to the store ONCE per week and know I come home with everything I need for dinners. Feeling confident about no fancy techniques and knowing it will come out well makes it really fun, and the kids can help me, too. It has eliminated so much stress of figuring out what to make, and we are saving money not needing to go out at the last minute or buying food we end up not using that goes bad. I am sure we'll be losing weight as another benefit, the nutritional info is at the bottom of each page and I am amazed at how sometimes the entire meal has the caloric content of what I sometimes consider a snack! I feel great my picky eaters are eating so well, Jonathan remarked the other day, "Mom we have had a different dinner every night for weeks!" and has already requested that I make one of them again. Some meals I will say they are more suspicious of trying than others, but they are eating tofu (my husband, too!), lentils, quinoa just to name a few, and that is far from the old macaroni and chicken nugget days*...


Here is what we will be having this week to give you an idea:

Herbed Chicken Roll Ups with Dijon and Mozzarella
Chili Rubbed Salmon
Taco Chili with Cilantro Sour Cream
Pan Fried Polenta with Sauteed Vegetables
Pad Thai

YUM!!

And here is a coupon code they gave me for friends that you can use if you want to try it out for $3 off a subscription
GLMEL14975

They have plans anywhere from 3 months to two years, and there is a 30 day money back guarantee so I really recommend trying it out. I just went for the two year plan since it is the cheapest and they have the moneyback guarantee, and it comes out to about 50 cents a week! Also, to give you an idea, while I don't have to buy ALL the staples each week (like olive oil, lots of the spices, etc) I have only been spending around $50 per week for my five meals! not bad, not bad at all!

Have I convinced The Scramble will you save you time you could be stamping and money you could use for more stamps yet?? LOL! ;) Any other questions you may have about the plan are covered on the site, so you really just have to see for yourself, I could go on and on about it but right now I REALLY need to go stamp for our release sneak peeks tomorrow! :)


*nights that I cooked, not nights my husband cooked, he is a fantastic in the kitchen!

My Left Thumb*

THUMB UPDATE: Thank you, thank you for all the emails, prayers and recommendations for my hand!!! I have seen some improvement in the past couple days and am learning through trial and error what I can and can't do, as well as what will really trigger more pain and numbness, or even put me "back to square one"(forgetting to rest and pressing the lid closed on a Tupperware container, whoa, who'd a thought!!), but I did make two projects yesterday and I hope to complete two more today! Every once in awhile I accidentally knock it against something that really makes the pain fresh again, but I really am trying to avoid using my thumb as much as possible.

The main focus has been how to do the simplest things with my other hand, I know I posted a couple years ago that if I ever lost the function of my hands, I was so passionate about illustrating I would have to learn to draw with my feet, but I see now there would be a LOT of other more basic and pressing things to relearn first (making your kids sandwiches, brushing teeth, putting on mascara (poked my eyeball with the wand) etc, etc! lol!) I read a book on suffering the week BEFORE this all happened though (I'll tell you more about it later) and how God uses it for our good as well as to allow us to help others, and He really used it to prepare me for this with my hand, that man's suffering and pain and the good that came out of it really put my little ol' hand issue into perspective! And I have a new appreciation for all of you who deal with arthritis, carpal tunnel, chronic pain or other issues on a daily basis that make crafting difficult and craft anyway, those creations are truly labors of love. I will pray for you and I would so appreciate your continued prayers, thank you!!

Next up, tonight I'll have that recommendation for the meal planning service I mentioned, it has truly changed my life in so many ways and I think it could change some of yours, too! :)

* not trying to confuse things, it IS my RIGHT Thumb that is injured, but it's a nod to one my favorite films "My Left Foot" (breakout performance for Daniel Day Lewis, run to rent this beautiful film if you have not seen and grab hankies on the way) the true story of artist Christy Brown who because of cerebral palsy only has the use of his left foot for writing and painting

It's a Recipe Hop! (and freebie for you!)

It's time for another CSS Blog hop!

Several members of the CenterStage Spotlight Alumni team have gathered some of their favorite BBQ Picnic recipes together for us to make another cookbook! The cookbook will be available for FREE over on the StampTV Freebie page for you to download and print at your leisure.



But, since we are paper crafters - we challenged them even further to make a project with their recipe in mind to share with us tonight on their blogs! (The projects are also included in photos on the recipe booklet as well.)



Please check out the links of all the participating designers and then download the Recipe booklet and let us know how you like them!

• Jessica Fick: Grilled Pizza




• Betty Neville: Mom's Chinese BBQ Ribs




• Joy Hadden: Whiskey BBQ Sauce




• Tina Gilliland: Homemade Enchiladas




• Sue Van deVusse: Midwestern Kabobs




• Melissa Shultz: Foil Babies




• Geri Utterback: Oven Baked Beans




• Pam Imholz: Foil Potatoes




• Sharri Seffens: Calico Beans




• Carla Suto: Grilled Vegetables




• Dawn Lusk: Roasted Corn and Black Bean Salad




• Peggy Wainman: Bean Salad




• Karen Knegten: Miss Lucy's Rice Salad




• Jennie Harper: Picnic Coleslaw




• Cheri Weston: Fiesta Pie




• Brenda Turner: Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake




• Lori McAree: Dessert Pizza




• Giovana Smith: Peruvian Alfajores




• Carolina Buchting: Vanilla Cupcakes with Butter Cream Frosting




• Jen Charboneau: Dirt Cake

Is your mouth watering as much as mine???? ;) Happy hopping!

PS Speaking of recipes, I have discovered a wonderful meal planning service that is just working wonders for our family (but does not include desserts so those listed above will be first on my list to try LOL!), I will share with you soon, that's a promise! :)

Ouch :(

Just a heads up, I seriously strained my thumb last weekend while cutting all our fabulous new sets for the release next week!* It was numb for days but started getting a little better Monday night, however just some light housework yesterday caused a new explosion of numbness, I fear from the symptoms I am having it may be carpal tunnel. :( (definitely has been a lot of typing in the and desk work over the past two years to send it over the edge like that) little things like turning the ignition to start the car or cut out an image are pretty unbearable... resting your thumb on your dominant hand is, I'm finding out, EXTREMELY difficult

I am trying to take a break from as much as I can to give it a rest, as well as from typing (this is lefty one hand typing, probably will take me half an hour to finish this!) and crafting so I can hopefully be recovered to get all my samples done for our previews, they start Sunday night with my set first, eek!!

Can you say a little prayer for me? I would SO appreciate it! I am wearing a brace and taking anti-inflammatories now, may see a doctor if it doesn't start getting better. (hey, not to worry, though: whatever happens I have lots of stamp sets already completed for the next several months LOL!)

Have not been able to create anything new for the last few days (you may have noticed I am getting a little behind) so I am unsure what I will be able to post for the rest of the week, I do have other news to share and pictures but it is hard putting together a post right now. Following or subscribing to my blog will alert you to when I am posting next. Thank you as always for visiting!

* And I have to be clear that this was NOT after using my beloved Tim Holz pair I've recommended here and use faithfully! I have never had a problem with those but misplaced my sweet snips, and I was foolish not to keep looking for them and going back to my old craft pair in a desperate rush to cut our new rubber, and am now suffering the consequences! I have no doubt I'd be stamping right now if only I'd held out for "Tim"!! But yay, I did find them again, (but only after cutting all the sets, wahhh!) Tim I love you still!

Week 4 with Carla: A Beautiful Mirror

Another breath taking project from Carla today, and I have to say, one of the best photographs with a mirror in it I've seen! (try it, it's tough!) She embosed the "A Beautiful Life" frame onto the middle of this mirror (love the frame within a frame!) the red bud trees in her yard are reflected in the background...



Did you know you could color images on mirrors with a water brush and water color crayons? I did not, and I am lovin the look here! The pink bow is so sweet and so unexpected on the mirror, but makes it oh so girly!

Here are more details from Carla:

Stamps: Gina K. Designs A Beautiful Life
Ink: Versamark
Accessories: White Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Aquapainter, Watercolor Crayons, Adhesive Pearls, Ribbon, 5x7 Mirror, Pewter Frame

I stamped the frame onto the mirror with Versamark and heat embossed with White EP. I colored the frame and flowers in with an Aquapainter and watercolor crayons, then added the bow and some adhesive pearls right on the mirror. "

Thank you, thank you , thank you Carla for doing such gorgeous things with "A Beautiful Life" this month, you have been an awesome guest designer! :) Please leave her lots of love today, and then let's go see Carla's blog for more inspiration!

Doilies and Tie Dye??

Do you look at a doily and see tie dye?? I have been meaning to use Nina's beautiful doily from "Nana's Needlework" for awhile now but I thought for a minute about what I could try with it that might be new to you... crossing my eyes while I stared at the stamp it got a little blurry and I had a bit of a "aha!' moment! ;) Time to pull out one of my favorite stamps (from "Little Tees") and do a bit of direct to stamp and misting for a totally groovy shirt, baby!


Choose a few different colored markers, here I grabbed several cool tones. Now loosely trace the rings making circles with each marker, putting different colors in between. Hopefully you can see I did not pick up ALL the detail of the stamp, these skips and wonky shaped rings instead of perfect circles will help with the tie dye feel in the finished image.

Now spritz on some water, these Mini Misters are perfect to keep at your desk when you are wanting a watercolor or blended look. Then stamp onto Pure Luxury White (let the paper dry a moment or heat set if you got it TOO wet) and stamp your T-shirt in black over the middle of the design. (yikes, that tee is one well-loved stamp, sorry!! I really DO clean them sometimes!)

ta DA!!!

I will be back to add a finished card using this tee, have just been so busy (and busy cutting new stamps in the house!) but I was really eager to share a funky style with this country/vintage quilting/sewing set, love the look and versatility! :)

Feel like trying some tie dye? Add your project to the Mr. Linky, then link up this post on your blog on your own blog or online gallery so people will know about the challenge. Just create some tie dye in your card, you do not HAVE to use the t-shirts or the doily stamps to play, just get creative with how you can adapt this technique to what you have or replicate the tie dye look in some way. I will announce a winner next week, that person will get some goodies from me! :)

Have fun!

Birthday thank yous!!

Hello! Sharing some beautiful birthday mail I received last week! It totally rocks gettiing mail fromgreat designers using your very own stamps! The first is from my dear friend Vanessa Yu. "Just So Hoppy" is still one of my favorite sets! Toadally adorable card! :)
This next one is from Theresa Momber! The funny thing is I had just spied this card on Theresa's blog and loved it, and a few hours later it was in my mailbox! I think it is so cool she used butterflies from my, Gina's and Theresa's own sets on the one card, it will always remind me of the special relationship and bond I share with both ladies. :)

Jennie Harper sent me this beauty that won her a special mention in the Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger Challenge! That was so sweet, Jennie! (Special cards like that are so easy to hoard! )

And finally Carolyn hand delivered this lovely she made for our sneak peeks of "A Beautiful Life"! It is truly bee-you-tiful and so creatively Carolyn!

I have few more to share that arrived today that I still need to photograph! I will be back with those shortly! Thank you again everyone who sent birthday love, in the form of phone calls and emails, too! I love you!

Hope you are having a great weekend! :)

OOPS! My bad!!! Challenge Winner!

Yikes, I am SO sorry, with the busy weekend and birthday stuff I totally forgot to post the winner of my scraps challenge!!! (why didn't anyone tell me? LOL!) Thank you everyone for playing, I hope to post many more (and will do better about choosing the winner in a more timely manner, give me another chance, please!) so I hope you will keep playing!!!



The winner of this challenge is Melissa Cash, congrats Melissa! (you (and a couple others) gave me border punch envy!!) She created two gorgeous, coordinating cards from scraps as well as taking pics of her "mess" she had to work with (several other people did that too and I LOVED that!!)



Please send me your addy Melissa and I will put some fun crafty shtuff in the mail to you! (think buttons,bling and Basic Grey, oh my!!)



Have a terrific weekend I have some long post I am working on for you that have several pics to upload and edit so stay tuned! :)

March Illustrator Blog Hop and Challenge

This month for our Gina K Illustrator Hop, Gina challenged us to use the new sets to create a card inspired by a favorite children's book. Well there are LOADS of wonderful tales to choose from, the hardest thing was just narrowing it down to one, the illustrations in my books growing up were my biggest inspiration to draw, plus a whole childhood of stories, oh my!

I could never name just one favorite, but my children loved the bright hand cut illustrations of Eric Carle and one of his books with a beautiful message is "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and it was very appropriate for my set this month, and I thought of a fun spin on some of the book's design elements to try, thank you Theresa for reminding me of this classic! ;) (that link has a very nice video of Eric Carle talking about the book and how it came together)

I did a plain white base with a side fold , just like the design of the board book we have. I kept the front simple and added the caterpillar from "A Year of Leaves" and punched holes along the bottom, like the chewed holes in the book as the caterpillar gets bigger, and bigger. The "A Beautiful Life" sentiment prompts you to open the card to finish reading...
and reveal this intricate looking pop up, very reminiscent of the book's final page, with the glorious pop out butterfly the caterpillar became! (Have you all read this book?) Although it is a very literal interpretation of the book, I think the design works very well as just a stand alone card!

To begin I folded a piece of card stock in half then trimmed out a large and small wing, one side of the butterfly, to make it symmetrical when opened. If you are interested I can add a template on my blog for this!

Next I stamped the " A Beautiful Life" butterfly all over it to create this pattern. At first I planned to do some masking , but then decided to just have them overlap, I like the look (and it was easier) it also gave some pretty overlapping opportunities to change the colors like holding different panes of colored glass up the light, see below.

Here it is colored with Copics. I did very little blending, just a rainbow of colors with a light and dark shade of each hue. I aslo added traced the veins in the wings with glitter pens, wish you could see how they sparkle in real life!

Then I scored the butterfly in the center and then in the middle on each remaining half, fold the body toward you (mountain fold) and then press the center of the wings back with the wing tips coming toward you (valley fold). Add adhesive just outside each of these two outside scores, line up the score in the middle of the butterfly with the score in the middle of your card, and press the butterfly down flat so the wings will attach. The wing tips will be free also. This fun design allows the butterfly to flap as you open and shut the card.

Here you can see it again, I added some little adhesive crystals for antennae into the card's middle.

I also made some little earrings and charm bracelet to go with! You can find these little crystal bracelets at Hobby Lobby for just a few dollars, already made, charm ready! Stamp the butterfly several times in Black Stazon onto Polyshrink, color the BACK side with Copics (so as not to smear the ink) cut them out, and punch a hole to add the jump ring.

After adding the jump ring, hold the ring with a stylus tip or tweezers and heat to shrink. I love the size this particular image shrinks down to, so sweet, not too small not too big, just right for little charms and the little delicate details still show up so nicely.

If you haven't already, stop
by GinaK's Blog for more information on tonight's Challenge Hop

Upload your creation to STV using any of the the following stamp sets with the keyword APRILBOOK.

• Challenge: Choose favorite children's book and make a project inspired by the book. Include photo of book along with why you chose it and how it inspired your project.


• Requirement: use any of these March Release stamp set: A Beautiful Life, By Your Side, Fairy Tales, Friends, Happy Spring, Nana's Needlework, Nana's Needlework Sentiments, Sending Sunshine, Spring Mix, Spring Has Sprung. You can enter more than once, but each entry needs to be with a different stamp set!


• Deadline: Monday, April 12th at 8 pm


• Prize: CenterStage Spotlight Designer for April (receives entire April release!)

To keep the inspiration going, check out these GinaK Designer's joining in on the hop tonight:

• Jessica Fick


• Nina Brackett


• Tami Mayberry


• Melanie Muenchinger (you are here! thanks for visiting!)


• Theresa Momber


• Carolyn King


• Cathy Tidwell


• Lee Murphy


• Erika Martin
• Emily Giovani


• Jennie Harper *March CSS Guest Designer Winner*

Week 3 with Carla Suto

This week Carla has constructed this lovely " A Beautiful Life" sample using the tulip frame, and then many of the flowers and leaves from " A Year of Flowers" she colored and cut out to fill out this dazzling spring bouquet! She said she took her inspiration from a home and garden flyer she saw, I love these mixed colors and the beautiful coral base! All the layers and dimension make it extra fabulous!! When you CASE this terrific design, don't forget the bee! ;)

I haven't seen the inside, but any greeting from the set with a single stamped flower or another bee would "bee" lovely...

Card Details
Stamps: Gina K. Designs A Beautiful Life and A Year of Flowers
Paper: Gina K. Pure Luxury White, Coral
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Copic Markers, Spica Pens, Foam Tape

Let's go see what else Carla made! :)

The Real Cammie...(or, Like Peas n Carrots)

Today I had the rare pleasure of spending the morning SoCo shopping with Carolyn, who then treated me to a wonderful birthday lunch at South Congress Cafe, yummo! As we walked in she broke her sunglasses , just taking them off her big ol' head, how does that happen? Snort! Here she hams it up like a girl after my own heart modelling her sorry shades, what a good sport!
And here I am, the birthday girl, 37 years young plus one day! Yup, it was yesterday, thanks everybody for the e-wishes, and Vanessa for making me lunch!!! I'm toasting all you ladies back with a Diet Coke! Check out my dish: no it's not meatloaf covered in powdered sugar, it's Carrot Cake French Toast!! (with syrup and pecan cream cheese spread , heavenly!!) It's a great friend BTW who will take a goofy pic of themselves and then take a totally awesome one of you!!

Here's Cammie looking more like her gorgeous self with her strawberry spinach salad, all of the yum but none of the guilt mine had! (hey, it was my BIRTHDAY!)

She also had this luscious tomato Stilton soup, and no, the bowl is not about to fall over, they had the tippy design that definitely shows you where the "front" and "back" is, brings the food is just a wee closer, comin' atchya!!! Definitely new to me!

She's such a big dork!! (why I love her) I brought over some hideous pink glasses as a joke to replace her old ones, and of course she had to pick out a hat to go with! (No, she didn't buy either of these items, just for comic relief, but did score some $4 earrings!)

We had great "shopping karma" today, I'm not sure I can remember what all she bought* and not sure she can either, but I *think* between the two of us we did buy at least one thing in every store we went into, how's that for supporting the good old Austin economy?! Way to spread the love, equal opportunity shoppers!

We did not buy this vintage shirt (for, gulp! $65?? yikes!) but I just had to take a pic of it, cause hey, it's Duran Duran!! (Rio on the back)

One of our last stops was the Big Top Candy Shop, I do believe I have mentioned this beloved sugar oasis at least once on this blog! Cammie was particularly charmed with these candy "peas n carrots", looking 100% like the real thing, and had to get a big helping! Expect to see some cute veggiecandylicious treat on her blog soon! ;)

Thank you again, Carolyn, for a fabulous day!!!!! We go together like peas and carrots! :)

* earrings, necklace, 2 bracelets, ring (none matching), monkey keyring and monkey bandaids (don't ask), bridal coin bank, am I forgetting anything ??? (I got a flower hair clip and a milk glass jar to put my q-tips in, a little boring compared to her fantastic haul!)

eeek!! LOOK!!! at this BOOK!!

I have a little something to shout about, lots of my work featuring stamps by me, Gina and Alicia K from Gina K Designs is in this new "Interactive Cards" book! First time for me to be in a book, a dream come true! I about passed out when I received my advance copy and saw 3 of my 5 projects I designed for the book featured in the Table of Contents! High five!!This is a really beautifully designed and edited book of 25 cool interactive projects, there were several designs I'd never seen before that I am anxious to try, and the step out pictures and instructions are very easy to understand. I definitely recommend it!* It is available for pre-order on amazon.com, or you can also find it now here.

Thank you for letting me share! :)

* I receive no money for the promotion or sales of this book, I'm just excited about it!! :)

Treasured Memory

First, thank you all SO much for leaving comments on the story I shared the other day, I knew it was worth telling if even one more person gained something from that, and reading again and again how much it did for so many was like waves of grace rolling over me. God bless!

Now a card to share (and then another story that is on my heart). When our new release stamps and card stocks arrived, I started out making my first little warm up card with "A Beautiful Life" using this sympathy quote in the set (which I love!!) and the gorgeous new Little Boy Blue Pure Luxury. I'm not sure why, but as I was about to color the tulips a beautiful blue to match to make a beautiful monochromatic card, I stopped and thought "Wait, are there blue tulips??" So I Googled it, and found that while tulips come in almost EVERY shade, even BLACK, (although it really looks more like deep brown burgundy or dark, dark violet) they do NOT come in BLUE!! Well, not that that matters, but for some odd reason I just could not move forward making them blue as planned LOL! So I decided to add just a touch of pale yellow, as I usually don't add a lot of bright, what I consider "cheerful colors" to sympathy cards.

But the card was kinda "meh" and a little too somber, rather than a "treasured memory". (Like I said, it was a "warm up" card!) Still lovin' the cardstock though, but I just couldn't decide at the time how to make it better, so I just photographed it and put it aside, hoping I might "make it work" later. It happens sometimes...sigh!!

A few weeks later, though, I was looking at this card again, and thought about a woman from my Moms Together Bible Study this past year, whose story from a few months ago will touch me forever. She had five children and was pregnant with #6, we watched her grow with child over the months we studied. One thing she'd shared in her small group as something she needed prayers for earlier in the year: her husband was not a believer, and it caused lots of problems in their marriage, and how they each wanted to raise their children. Later we all prayed for an easy labor for her during our last session before breaking for the Christmas holiday, the baby was due any day. (While no delivery is without risk, I don't think what would actually come to pass crossed any of our minds...)

A few days later we all received an email that the baby was still born. Her perfectly formed little girl never took a breath because the placenta abrupted during delivery, and the family was deeply mourning their loss. We were all stunned and heartbroken for them and reached out with cards and prayers. Aching for this woman I barely knew, I believed with my whole heart that innocent child's spirit flew straight into the loving arms of Jesus Christ.

But just one week later we received another email from the mother, the contents of which was one of the most beautiful testaments of healing, God's love, and how He uses ALL things for good that I've ever read. To summarize, she explained that she was experiencing God's presence in a way she never had before: that her family was closer, that she woke up each day wrapped in a blanket of warmth that she knew could only be Him, she was falling in love with her husband all over again and the answer to her prayers, that her husband had given his life to Christ, born from wanting God to heal him the way he saw the Lord was doing for his wife, as well as his desire to one day live forever with his family and daughter he never knew in heaven! In just one week this all happened! That to me is a miracle. Oh I can't think of it without crying and getting chills!! Even through death and grief she could still experience this joy and remain faithful! Loving my children as much as anything on this earth it is almost impossible for me to imagine that I could be that faithful, but it gives me hope: during one of the lowest points in their lives, God brought about some of their best, a memory and promise to surely treasure, that He can and will sustain and restore us.

Remembering all this, I made some changes to my card, stamping the teeny butterfly from Theresa's "Sending Sunshine" to create this pattern on the background and added some Red Hot punched corners and Strong Red Copic for bicolored tulips. A little sponging in the oval looks like a peek though a window into a golden sky, maybe a glimpse at one of the best days of our past with that person or into the great beyond. NOW when I read this sentiment I connect this card with a celebration of one's life and the promise of our eternal life, without sickness or sadness, we have when we believe. I don't know who this card is for yet, but when it comes time to send it out, I pray it will remind the recipient of all the good things past and hope of what is yet to come when Jesus is our savior....

Happy Easter! Christ died for YOU and is risen!

Where He Leads Us

I have to tell you about an experience I had a couple days ago, it took some time to write it down. I spent some time in the morning reading the Bible, and then came across a really beautiful testimony on someone’s blog I came across looking up a verse to put on a card for our neighbor. Later I read part of a book on my Kindle at the gym “Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus”, then said a prayer after leaving that I would follow God’s plan for whatever he had in mind for me today. My mind and heart were filled with the Word. My son William and I went down to Zilker Park and spent a wonderful afternoon enjoying the weather and noticing all the things God made, the rocks, grass etc.

We walked down a path that we’ve been on many times, and I noticed some stone steps below the path I’d never seen before, with a young man sitting working on a beautiful sketch of the bridge above us. It looked like a perfect spot to relax and as an artist the perfect way to spend an afternoon. I thought “That guy has either found the secret of life… or he’s looking for it.” I felt compelled to go down to take a closer look at his drawing and let him know I thought he was very talented, although at the same time I also thought I could be intruding on some private time he might be needing. I pushed it aside and decided I would be able to tell if he wanted us to go away, it wouldn’t hurt to pay him the compliment. We crept down and he took off his Ipod and said hello. I told him we didn’t want to interrupt his time, but that his drawing was wonderful and asked if he was an artist. “Well…I draw and play music...but ...I’ve been struggling a bit.” William asked for some paper from his sketch pad and the man gladly obliged him, and William set to work on his own drawing (this made it possible for the man and I to have a conversation!).

Since he’d opened up I told him I was an illustrator, and a little bit about the kind of art I did. He seemed very interested, we chatted a little about our work and styles, and then I asked what he had meant by “struggling”. He went on to say although he was commissioned from time to time to do portraits, he’d had a very rough past two years, having lots of problems in his personal life as well as not really sure what direction to go with his art. “Have you prayed about that?” I asked. “Well, it’s funny you should ask that. I actually started dating a girl about a month and half a go who’s very religious, and she’s been taking me to church. She bought me a Bible and I’ve been going. I grew up Catholic, but... kind of lost my faith a couple years ago.” I told him about how I’d grown up drawing but how I’d had trouble in my teens and 20’s , lost my confidence, and put aside my gift for a long time. I could tell from his comments and body language he was very engaged and probably related to a lot of what I’d gone through. Then I told him a few years ago I went to an art & faith class I’d been attending at my church, and realized what an important expression of our faith art was, and began earnestly praying that God would show me what he planned for me when he gave me that gift. Then, almost immediately after a door opened for me to start illustrating for Gina K Designs, an opportunity far better than I had imagined for myself. He seemed really encouraged by that! He went on to explain that he’d gotten kicked out of his parents house for not making all A’s in junior college, been staying with friends, totaled his car, and lost his job in the past year. But that things were starting to get back on track, with going to church, meeting this new girl, found a new job, new car, living at home again (although things were still tense). I asked him his name and after he told me, I told him I would pray for him. I also said his girlfriend sounded like a really nice woman. He said she’d actually just left for the UK and would be gone for 6 months, but they were going to try to keep things going between them. (He was clearly missing her already) I said that would go by in no time if it was meant to be, and that he had so many things in his life to focus on here in the mean time and he agreed.

After several more minutes of chatting about his church, art, and life, I felt it was time to go. Before I left, I told him I didn’t usually (well, really never) approach someone about their faith like I just did or offer to pray for them, and he laughed and said that he didn’t usually tell his life story to strangers either! I explained that the more focused I’ve been on God, when I feel the urge now to go somewhere or do something without really knowing why, it may be God wanting to reveal something to me or maybe use me for something, and when I saw him under the bridge I felt I was supposed to be there, and I was supposed to talk to him. “Well, I’m really glad you did", he said. “Keep drawing, I said with a smile. “Pray that God will lead you." “I will!” he replied with hope in his eyes. His energy was completely different from when we’d arrived ( He’d been very kind but seemed “at sea”, or in his own words, "struggling".) We thanked him for the paper he'd loaned William and turned to go.

“Thank you!” he called after me as William and I walked back up the path. :)

I felt overjoyed on the way home that what I shared might have been exactly what he needed to hear, and very blessed, that talking with him that day was exactly what I needed too! Giving me the courage to put myself out there more, showing me that He will speak through me, and healing the tiny places in my heart from trials I suffered long ago, in many ways it was like sharing hope with a younger version of myself. Later I thought of many other things I could have told him about, more parallels I could have drawn between our experiences that could have helped (as well as realizing a sort of strange siginificance about his drawing of a bridge, that's he trying to go somewhere!! but anyway! LOL) but, I trust that feeling I had that it was time to leave. I'll just continue to pray for him. And I pray that reading this will touch your spirit today and believe that God has SO many plans to use your life, the blessings you receive for letting Him work are beyond measure! God is good!

Have a blessed Easter weeekend!

Sweet Bees

Good morning!! If you read my tip sheet post for the "A Beautiful Life" set very carefully, today I am sharing the "bee clock" I mentioned! (Do you read all the tips??) Anyway, here it is in my master bath!
Similar to the clock I shared made with my Festive Frame set, it uses an unfinished wooden panel and a 3/4" clock kit, both of which I bought at Hobby Lobby, but this time I wanted to show how you could adapt the rectangular frame stamp to a square base. After painting the base with a Willow Green craft paint (and the outer edges with black) I layered my stamped frame (colored with Copics in cool, muted tones to match my bath decor) onto square offset panels of Black Onyx and White Pure Luxury punched out with the Martha Stewart Lattice punch.

In each of these pics you can see one of the bees in a different position! I am really enjoying peeking over at it each day while I do my makeup and see him lazily circling around the flowers on the second hand (tick tick tick!)! After cutting out my stamped bees, I popped the lower one up on a pop dot, this one stays fixed (embellished with another one of my favorite crystal flourishes!) while the other is attached with a glue dot to the end of the second hand.

You can hang the clock from the bracket on the back, lean it in a corner, or prop it up with an inexpensive stand like this black one, also from Hobby Lobby. The only thing I would do differently about this clock if i had to do it over again would be to cut out the back layers behind the clock face where the hole is drilled through(so you would still see all the different layers but the back ones y would be cut out with a large square in the middle, KWIM?), because adding 4 layers this time of Pure Luxury instead of just one to the panel really increased the thickness (that's Pure Luxury, baby! LOL!) made it difficult to get all the parts on, to make it work I just removed the washer from the back so my hands would still fit on. Whew!

Although I forgot to take a picture with it staged this way, these oval frames could also be rotated on their side for wider, horizontal clock face instead of vertical like I have here, a different look and all you have to do is turn the clock and reset the time! :) Hope you enjoyed this project, this clocks are so fun to make, and a great way to personalize your space, incorporating your stamping craft into your decor. Make a wonderful, inexpensive gift, too (material less than $8)

Have a beautiful day!

* PS there may be a teeny, tiny clue about my upcoming set in one of these pictures... ;)