Mini album

I have not been doing very well at posting my work lately.  Don't know why except maybe laziness, and forgetting to photograph my work before I mail the card or give away the album!  In the past couple of weeks I have been working on a small (about 3 1/2 in. x 5 in.) interactive album and I actually remembered to take some photos this time!  It was fun to make, but I am a bit saddened by how tight I made the binding, so it is harder to open up than I would like.  It made it more difficult to photograph than I like, but I'll learn from this experience for the next one.  I will make a larger space between the spine and the front/back covers to allow for better opening ability.

But, that being said, here is the finished product:

There is a waterfall album on the inside of both the front and back covers and each of the 3 pages is full of interactive elements that you unfold or open up in some way.

I covered the spine with some hammered gold metallic paper which went very beautifully with the brown and yellow cover papers.

Trees and gears

I have a set of stamps that are very masculine-looking, with gears and trucks, trees and leaves, but I don't have a lot of occasions when I can use them even though I really like the look I get.  However, I found just the use for them when making a card this morning for a friend.  I used the current challenge sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.  This is the sketch:

and here is my take on it:

I used copper embossing powder for the tree and one set of leaves and the word is die cut from turquoise holographic paper from Paper Wishes.  They sell it as blue fireworks paper but it looks very close to turquoise and I thought it looked really good with the copper colors.

On the inside I used the birthday greeting from the same stamp set to carry through on the gears theme:

I hope our friend enjoys his birthday card!

Dragonflies

This week the challenge at Freshly Made Sketches is a simple one, and fit perfectly for a get well card I wanted to make for a friend.  This is the sketch for the week.

Here is the card I made:

I had some paper that had dragonflies on it, then I added a dragonfly sticker.  I backed the wings with metallic mirrored blue paper,

One the inside of the card I used another piece of the same background paper and added another dragonfly prepared like the front one along with a tiny little pink-winged dragonfly to add a touch of other color.

Salvation and restoration

Jeremiah 30-31 “I will…”

As I read through these chapters this morning, I was struck by the multiple ways God describes His loving restoration of His people.  Making a list of those ways is a blessing as I am reminded of God’s love and willingness to restore me when I wander away from Him, and of the bountiful blessings I have in Christ as a result of my salvation.  I could not make a “Top Ten” list today … there are more than ten blessings in spiritual restoration!  Look at this list!

            1. I will restore their fortunes

            2. I will bring them back

            3. I will break the yoke off your neck

            4. I will save you from far away

            5. You will have quiet and ease

            6. None shall make you afraid

            7. I will restore health to you

            8. You will be radiant over the goodness of the Lord

            9. I will comfort them

            10. My people will be satisfied with my goodness

            11. I will satisfy the weary soul

            12. I will forgive their iniquity

            13. I will remember their sin no more

100th birthday

Our friend Dot is having a birthday party this afternoon and it is not just any birthday ... she is turning 100 and that calls for some special celebration!  And it called for a special birthday card as well, so I made her a bouquet of flowers, in a box.  And they will not wither very quickly, either!

The box folds flat, like so...

The effect is so pleasant then you "open" the card and all the flowers pop up and dance around.  I think she will enjoy this bouquet for a long time to come!

I even decorated the envelope with her name:

Love Bug card

To be more accurate, I should probably call this card a masculine birthday card because that is really what I made, but I found this cute little VW bug in my stickers/Dazzles and some paper that had old cards on it so I combined them to make this card for a male friend whose birthday is coming soon.  I recently received an order I made for some neat new stamps and it fit perfectly with this card.  The pictures should explain ...

I decided to enter this card in the current week's Freshly Made Sketches


 Here is my card:

Heightened awareness

Isaiah 22:12-13 In that day the Lord God of hosts called for weeping and mourning, for baldness and wearing sackcloth; and behold, joy and gladness, killing oxen and slaughtering sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine …

I am often reminded in Scripture that we do not see sin as God sees it, and these verses reminded me yet again.  Part of God’s condemnation of Israel was based on how they responded to God’s assessment of their sinfulness.  They took it so lightly because they did not see their sin as “all that bad.”  It is only as I grow in my relationship to God that I will grow in my understanding of sin and righteousness, learning to view both from a godlier viewpoint.  I have seen that develop in my own Christian walk through the years.  After close to 70 years as a believer and follower of Christ, my understanding of God’s holiness and my own sinfulness is much keener and more sensitive and the seriousness of the matter is heightened.  My prayer for my family is that this will become true for them also, as they grow older