Growing in God's Love

Good morning girls!! It's Wednesday and I am actually getting all my posts for today typed well before Wednesday debuts. It's a busy day here on the blog so I hope you've got your coffee, tea or soda of choice. Curl up and sit a spell won't you?

First up is the challenge for Pink Papery Studios. This week's challenge was issued by Jennifer and she suggested we use pink bling in honor of Valentine's day. We get bonus points for using the bling on a notebook or journal to highlight all the things we love, a great suggestion from Amy. When I was in college, I kept a quote journal and still have it on my bookshelf. Love is a direct gift from God and one of the desires of my heart in 2009 is to really make scripture a part of my soul, memorizing it more and keeping it close to my heart. So I thought a journal to record all the scriptures that speak to me would be a great gift to myself!

Amy recently sent us all a package of goodies and I was so excited to get home on Sunday and actually get mine!! I'd been hearing the whole time I was gone about all the goodies inside!! One of them was this cute little journal. It feels like a canvas or a linen. Heres' the back:


Also included in our package was several bottles of Shimmer It paint. I uses Promising to cover the base of my journal and Peaceful to cover a piece of watercolor paper. Peaceful is the prettiest blue color. I used 2 coats on my paper and it's still very sheer, with just a hint of blue. I stamped the tree from Owl Be Green (Cocoa Studio) in Chocolate Chip and then ran the panel through my Cuttlebug using the Swiss Dots folder. The edges are scalloped with my border punch from Stampin Up! I used some bling flowers in place of the leaves on my tree and free-handed some grass using Moss Petal Shimmer It. I generated my own sentiment and finished it off with some ribbon!

Here's a shot to show all the shimmer and sparkle. Isn't it lovely?

I am working on the His Holy Name challenge that Patter Cross is doing (link in my sidebar) and she also has a Scripture Challenge. There is also the Divine Design challenge. While I don't know if I'll get a "project" created every week for these, I do want to study God's word and keep it close to my heart. I think this journal is a perfect way to do that!

Stay tuned for my Flutter By card and my Cuttlebug Challenge card too!

You're an Angel

Hi again! It's Wednesday so that means it's time for another Pink Papery Studios challenge. This week Kimmie issues our challenge - to alter something! Oh - what a good idea!! Amy, the owner of PPS, gave us some new images to use this month. I think this angel food cake is darling!! It's such a clever idea! And there is a matching Devil's Food Cake to go with it. They are part of the Whimsy Studios collection.

I originally had another idea that used an actual angel food cake container. But I need a Big Bite Crop A Dile to make it work like I envisioned. Don't you know that the year I finally decided I needed one and requested it for Christmas is when they announce 1 month later they are coming out with the Big Bite. I haven't made the plunge yet on that tool. But hey, I collect tools too so it probably won't be long! LOL

I switched gears and used an empty peanut butter container instead. Just simple paper decorations where the label used to be. I colored my angel cake with my prismacolor pencils and used my blending pencil to smooth it out and add shading. One tip: this is a digi image I have and the ink can smear even with the pencils. Don't you LOVE the cake stand? Who could resist a pink polka dotted cake stand? I know I couldn't!!

I recommend using images that you've printed on a toner machine instead of an ink jet machine as you don't have to worry about the smearing then. I painted some Shimmer It on her wings and lacy edging, cut her out and popped her up with dimensionals. A quick ribbon treatment with layered buttons hid the red lid that did not match my color scheme. Here's another tip: lots of red sticky tape to hold these layers in place!

Now, be sure to stop by the other girls blogs today too! I've seen some of the creations on the DT blog and they are too, too cute!! Links are over in my sidebar!!

ETA: Testing adding links

Crafting for Sanity
Diva For A Day
Glitter In My Hair
Jaspere's Little Corner
Musings of an Addict
Pixie Dreams
Simply Sista's & Card Scents...
So Cal LinZ
Stamp Happy!
The Best in Life...
The Whimsical Butterfly

If you've read this far, you deserve a treat!! Lori is the illustrator of the Whimsy Studios collection. Stop by her blog as she has blog candy to giveaway - and it's stamps!! Cool thing is there are 3 - yes 3 - winners that she'll be giving prizes too! And don't forget that I also have a sweet treat to giveaway - see THIS POST!

Welcome Chick

Hi girls!! (I hope that doesn't bother any of you - I'm a southern girl and it's a term I use for all the women in my life and I mean it most affectionately. I guess it's kinda like "ya'll" where I'm from).

Anyway, it's Wednesday and time for another Pink Papery Studios DT challenge. This week I laid out the challenge to create a SIMPLE card. Or to take the week off. Either one. I'm always looking for an excuse to stamp so I made this little tag. I had hoped to have it done and "scheduled" a week ago but that never happened. I brought some items with me to my in-laws and in the bag were all the new PPS stamp sets I just got. I was drawn to this set as it is seems very "folk art" to me and I don't have many stamps like this in my collection. There is a bird house and another bird in it so it's very versatile.

Simple to me means QUICK. And one of the quickest, simplest ways I can think of to add color to a project is a watercolor wash. As I was looking at the items I brought, I was thought of my MIL who has created one of the most welcoming homes I've ever been in. She always has tons of little touches for her guests (like a Christmas tree in my BIL and SIL room that has her baby booties and a picture of my BIL as a baby and baby washcloths for them). I could totally see her leaving out some towels in the bathroom with this little tag on top to let her guest know how happy she is to have them. The bathroom is done in this gorgeous warm tones of gold and amber and that inspired my color combination. I created a little tag from some watercolor paper and just used my markers to scribble on one of my acrylic blocks. Then using my blender pen (b/c I forgot my waterbrush) I created a row of color using: More Mustard, Pumpkin Pie, Really Rust and Chocolate Chip. Once it dried, I overstamped it with my chicken and added the welcome sentiment. Tying a quick little bow finishes it off nicely. This didn't take very long but is really cute!!

Hope you are having wonderful times with your family and loved ones. All my best wishes to you and yours!!