Tuesday Trigger - Friendly flowers

What a beautiful Tuesday Trigger inspiration photo this week. Very inspiring don't you think? If you want to play along,  here is the link to the Moxie Fab World Blog.

So I knew which stamp I wanted to use, but it hasn't been delivered yet, but my mind wandered to this beautiful Hero Arts stamp called Floating Garden.
 

I colored direct to the stamp with distress markers, lightly sprayed with water and stamped.

Then I got another little idea. I stamped on an oval and adhered to a vellum diecut.

Then I got another idea and stamped on a circle and adhered to a doily. The little wooden bird comes from a lovely friend of mine, so happy to use it!

Thanks to Cath for another inspiring challenge!
Jacqueline

Teusday Trigger Pastel Pretties and Pinterest Inspiration

I took one look at the Easter-tinted picture on the Moxie Fab World blog and knew what I wanted to do to imitate this Teusday Trigger. If you are interested in playing along, the challenge can be found here.

I just used one flower stamp from Darkroom doors and multi-stamped in the colors of the eggs on the picture, although I think they are almond coated sweets.

The heavens declare the glory of God. Ps.19:1

For my second project I was inspired by the lovely grid patterns and colors in the picture on the left, which I found on Pinterest.

I stamped on the reverse side of a wine-label as I love the quality of the paper. I used the Silhouette Grass stamp from Hero Arts (S5316) for the background, colored wit bundled sage distress maker and then used the Floating Meadow stamp which has also been colored with distress markers and sprayed with water before stamping over the top of the grass. .

I hope to be back before the end of the week. Our weather is bad for the time of the year and I still don't feel as well as I would like.

Thanks for passing by!
God bless you
Jacqueline

Painted Flower from Hero Arts

This is one of the new stamps I got with my winnings on the Hero Arts Blog at the end of January.

I know already its going to be a favorite of mine. It stamps well, it's elegant and I get the results I want!
I used distress markers and sprayed quite richly with water straight to the stamp before I stamped the image on beige cardstock. Added a sentiment and it's ready to send to somebody. Quick and easy!

It's called the Painted Flower K5767

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.
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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

Tuesday Trigger - Val de Victorian

This is this weeks Trigger inspiration photo. The challenge which Cath at the Moxie Fab World gives every two or three weeks can be found here.

and these are my interpretations, because when one idea comes to mind, a second can follow! The sentiment mimics the slope the houses are on, which I did for the next card too. This is one of my favorite Hero Arts stamps at the moment called Floral Blossom. I used distress markers and pads and sprayed with water to give a muted effect. As you will see, the sentiment I used is from the same give-away I have further down this blog post.

My second card is the Flower Swirl Vine which was my original idea. This stamp does not get used enough really but I thought it was ideal for this challenge. I used distress makers and pads once again and the same sentiment.

Now I wanted to share a little thought provoking encouragement to my fellow sisters in the Lord.
I was a little discouraged lately. How full of compassion the Lord is to help us. I was sifting through some papers and found something which I want to share with you. Derek Prince is the Author.
Quote
The example is Gideon sitting behind the wine press, threshing the wheat and hiding in utter discouragement. The angel came to Gideon with the unexpected statement, "The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!" (Judges 6:12). Gideon surely looked around to see whom the angel was talking to, because he was cowering in fear from the Midianites. The Lord had to change Gideon's picture of himself before He could do anything with him.
The same is true of us. If we can't look at ourselves through the eyes of faith, then we are scarcely eligible for God's service. A wrong negative picture of ourselves will frustrate everything God wants to do for us unless we view things in a different light. Discouragement is a spiritual attack and we need the full Armour of God to counter attack it.
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I will stop there, because I think this says a lot already. Lets try and look at ourselves and each other through Christ and believe in the gifts He has placed within you - you probably have more to offer in this world than you ever thought you had!

Finally, I have a give away, again. I won a 50 dollar spending spree at Hero Arts in July. After three weeks my package had still not arrived, so I sent an e-mail to May to tell her. Within the day she had sent it again via Fed-Ex and it got delivered to my door in four days, hows that for service!! In the mean time, the original set of stamps arrived! May has kindly let me keep them so I will be having three give-aways in the coming weeks.

This is the stamp set which you could win. Please leave me a comment so I know you are interested. Picking a winner on Saturday!
Have a lovely day!
Jacqueline