Merry Christmas!

Hopefully everyone out there had a wonderful Christmas! I missed seeing my family again this year, and it was a difficult Christmas to say the least. But, thanks be to God and his wonderful grace, I made it through. We were so busy with my in-laws, who by the way, are the best in-laws a girl could ask for, that I didn't even have much time to dwell on missing my own side of the family. The real blessing of the season, though, is one that should not be overlooked--the blessing of the gift of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ for without him there would be no hope at all or reason to celebrate. So even in the difficult times and the lonely hours we should all remember the blessing of the season. Here's wishing you all a very merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year with many blessings yet to come.

Now for the big one!

Okay, Here's the big project I've been working on that has kept me away so long. This is a project that my husband's aunt came up with about Thanksgiving time, and it turned out beautiful. In this book are copies of all the letters written between my husband's grandparents both before they were married and after they were married and he was working in California while she lived here with two small children and one on the way. It took a lot of time, but was well worth the effort to see how much these books meant to each of the four kids. Eventually, there will be nine total books completed, but I could only accomplish four during the christmas rush for presents. By the way, sorry about the jumble of pics above. I just can't seem to get the graphic part of this down yet! arrrgghh. Someone please show me a better way. LOL

so now, for a little creative activities I have accomplished...Ready? I've been really busy, and I don't mean that as an understatement either! The following projects were really just diversionary tactics to take a break from another project I can't share just yet, but it's a big one. Trust me! The first one is for a gift exchange. If you are going to be at that gift exchange, act surprised. LOL I was too excited over how it turned out to wait on the post! This is a tic tac toe game that I created with the beautiful (well, some aren't really convinced, but I am :D) Scandinavian stamp set out of the mini catalog and paper punches. The pieces are stored in an acetate pocket on the inside flap of the game board. The pieces attach with velcro. The first picture is of the outside with the board folded up. The remainin pictures are of the inside with and without the pieces attached.

The second one...an idea I got from Splitcoast Stampers gallery. It's a big project, and the original idea is actually a card, but I converted it to a bound chipboard project to use as home decor that would be sturdy and last a while. What do you think? Sorry about the jumble of photos. I was having a war with my computer and the computer won!

Miracles do happen!

Where have I been?!! My word, what a month, and it's only half-way through. So much busyness with all the holiday activity and shopping, I can hardly think straight sometimes. This in addition to all the family drama happening in my life as well. For those who don't know, my Grandma was near death and was told by the hospice that she would really only have about 24-48 hours left. That was Thursday. Well, we went to go see about her on Saturday and found her alert and in her bed able to converse with those around her. Apparently, the Lord performed a miracle on her. She is still not able to really do much of anything for herself and is still on hospice care, but at least we will have her for a little while longer. Please continue to pray for my family through some very difficult times ahead. Thank you to those who have been praying. I have felt your prayers and have received very kind words of encouragement.

A challenge card for today...

This one was a challenge for me! I love color ALOT. So when I found this color challenge on SCS I decided to give it a try, and I combined it with a recent sketch challenge as well. The colors are sahara sand, very vanilla and basic black. That's it! So I got out my two favorite sets--Always, and baroque motifs. Using Sahara sand on the very vanilla I stamped the flourish and the word cherish. Then on another piece of very vanilla, I stamped this beautiful heart in black and then used a blender pen to add in some sahara sand to tie it all together. I added a piece of black ribbon and a brad to the edge for the finishing touch. I really like the elegance of this card. Hope you like it!

Another photo mailer type card...

This was our creative activities project for MOPS this month. We all made photo mailers that are a card and a scrapbooking project all in one. These were so much fun to do and so simple. These are samples of some of the moms projects. Aren't they great? There were many more just as cute, but I didn't get around to taking pics of all of them. LOL