A Faith Perspective Thankful for Friends Faith Blog Hop

Welcome to Scrapbook News and Review Magazine's

A Faith Perspective Thankful for Friends Faith Blog Hop.

Today, we're out in force on the internet -- showing our faith and giving the glory to God. United, we stand as Christian paper crafters and blog owners to make a presence on the internet for all to see. We're celebrating the theme of friends and we're happy to share our projects with you based on the verse:

"Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. " Ecc4:9-10a

If you're just joining in on the fun, you can find the start of the train HERE: . First, we would like to take a moment to thank our generous co-sponsors: Layers of Color Stamps, Gina K Designs Stamps and Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps. Together with Scrapbook News and Review Magazine, these companies have donated some wonderful prizes for today's blog hop.

Prizes? Oh, yeah! There will be three lucky grand prize winners for today's event.

To enter, simply hop to the blogs of all of the participating staff members of Scrapbook News and Review Magazine, take note of the staff member's name, and leave a comment on their posts. Then send us an email at games@scrapbooknewsandreview.com listing each of the staff members who participated in today's hop. It's that easy. All entries must be received by Monday, November 16, 2009 at 12 noon, EST and three winners will be randomly chosen to win.

What are the prizes?

1. One $100 gift certificate from Layers of Color Stamps AND a 6 month subscription to Scrapbook News and Review Magazine.

2. One basket of goodies -- four stamp sets from Gina K Designs and a 6 month subscription to Scrapbook News and Review Magazine.

3. One set of digital stamps from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps and a 3 month subscription to Scrapbook News and Review Magazine.

In addition, every participating staff member of Scrapbook News and Review Magazine will offer a free one-month subscription to the magazine to one of their lucky visitors by simply leaving a comment on their blog. That's a lot of chances to win, so let's get to the Hop!

I am sharing a card that I taught last month to some friends. I think it's a perfect representation of the friendships that have personally blessed me over the past many years as a stamper.
**First, the process of learning and sharing with others is what friendship is all about. This card uses the Velvet Glitter technique that I learned from on online friend at Cuttlebug Challenge.
**Second, the bird reminds me of that saying "Birds of a Feather Flock Together" and this calls to mind the wonderful local and online stamping friends that I have made. An artistic outlet is the common thread that binds us together ---- and as we grow closer, we discover more common threads.
**The glitter is also representative of friendship to me. My friends bring so much "sparkle" - laughter, joy, love - to my life.

I hope you enjoyed the card and are being blessed by the blog hop! Part of our discussion last night at bible study centered on the spiritual battles that we face as Christians. How wonderful that we can bond together, each of us raising our shields of faith, so to encourage each other and to fight the battles against Satan together. I am so thankful for my sweet Sisters in Christ.

The next stop on this blog hop is:

Linda Lucas at Lovely Linda's Craft Central.

Thanks so much for stopping by - I hope you'll come back again! Please leave a comment so I can come and visit you too! Have a beautiful day!

Wanna see my other blog?

Be Inspired #22: Glitter

Happy Wednesday girls! I hope you have got your drink of choice by your side and have a few moments. 3 posts today so be sure to "just keep scrolling"

First up is the Be Inspired Challenge for the Cuttlebug Challenge. For this week we were challenged to use glitter in our creations. Our sponsor this week is Sweet-N-Sassy stamps and I used the butterfly image for my card.


I colored it in with my markers and then ran it through my Xyron upside down so that the adhesive was applied to the front - or colored side - of my butterfly. Then I covered it in ultra fine clear glitter. Oh it is sooo shimmery!!

For the base I used the Harlequin die and cut out the harlequin shapes from a multitude of glittered papers from a DCWV stack. After adhering them to my black base I added gemstones at the points and then attached it to my base with dimensionals.

What do you think? It's very bright and colorful and definitely not my usual style. One minute I adore it and then the next I think it's too much and too busy.

Be sure to visit the Cuttlebug Challenge blog for more info on this week's sponsor and to see the rest of the design team's creation.

Make Music

Good morning girls!! It's time for another Pink Papery Studios challenge! This week marks our FIRST challenge of 2009 and Lindsay suggested that we use metallics as a great way to ring in the new year!

My metallic paper is the red paper. It's not a glossy finish, more matte and has a slight sparkle to it. I actually picked it up at Target in the Christmas stationary section. My chocolate chip base and the next layer as well are embossed with the music notes cuttlebug folder. Then I smeared some red glitter gloss over it. The image on the left is a new image we got from Amy. I'm not sure if it's a dress, or a slip or a cover-up. On this card, it's a little nightie. With Valentine's Day coming up I thought it would make a fun card for my hubby. {wink} The panel on the right is stamped with a music stamp in Memento Rich Cocoa? Some flowers and a handwritten tag finish it off.

Be sure to stop by all the rest of the design team's blogs too to see what they created! Several of us used the same image and OH MY!! Let me tell you, they are CUTE, CUTE, CUTE!!

Jami

Jessica

Ami

Valerie

Shelly

Jennifer

Taylor

Kimmie

Janna

Amy

If you decide to play along this week, we'd love to see your creation! Link it up here so I can come check it out!

Love to You & Yours

Just a quick post today! We are leaving for my in-laws today; I can't wait to see them. My husband's brother and his wife will be there as well as the rest of the family. We haven't seen them in sooo long. They are expecting their first baby in February and I am pumped about seeing my SIL's preggo belly. I'll have online access at my in-laws but sometimes it's a pain to try to blurf as they block all cookies and it just takes forever it seems. So I just want to say to my SBS gals - have a wonderful week and I'll be catching up with each of you about this time next week. I'm sorry I haven't even been by *this* week yet but I know you are each busy just like me. Actually, this applies for all of you that I visit every day. I hope to be able to check in while I'm away but if I don't, I'll see you soon! And now for a little something:

I had been saving this to share as it was for a swap and then by the time they were swapped and received, I had forgotten about it. We had to use scallops somewhere on our ATC and I chose this funky lime green lace! The flower is totally glittered and really stands out! About a year ago I started attending the local stamp club again and instead of cards, they were making ATC's. It has been such a great year with lots of familiar faces and even more new ones. The neatest gals are in the club and I have so enjoyed getting to know them. I remember last year thinking I would hate ATC's and never be any good at them because they were so small. I was going to do it for the fellowship with other stampers but I have grown to love making them. Are any of you ATC creators too? How do you store yours? Mine are in a ziploc bag for a month and the little man loves to look at them every day. And every day it's like he's seeing it for the first time. Cracks me up. Then they go in a basket when I get the new bunch in.

Merry Christmas. May it be a beautiful, peaceful one for you.

I Can't Stop Smiling

I wanted to share with you one of the cards I made with my sister and some other friends a few weeks ago. I picked up the peach element in the dollar section at JoAnn's back in October. It is completely covered in glitter. I know it looks shiny and smooth in the photo, but it's just raw, chunky, sparkly glitter. I was looking at the peace (pun intended) I thought about one of my favorite card artists and how she had been layering buttons on her cards. I wanted to achieve the same thing and have a card with some pretty stuff on it but nothing that would detract from the message.

Peace is what I hope you find in the coming days as Christmas quickly approaches. Peace is what I hope you find in the new year and all throughout 2009.

Thank you so much for stopping by and visiting my blog. Your visits and your sweet comments make my day!

And finally, I wanted to share with you why I have been grinning and floating for the past 2 days. First, a major goal of mine was realized this week. I had a card picked up for publication - this has just rocked my world!!! I am so excited and honestly, still in shock....I didn't expect to be able to say that I had met this goal this year. Granted it won't be out for months and months but still - I got the acceptance this year! Anyway, I knew you would understand my joy.

Another reason I'm floating this week is because I have been honored to be included as part of the Twinkle Team (more info here). I am so excited to be a part of this. In case you aren't familiar with this brand new sketch challenge, here's some info. Jessica, The Whimsical Butterfly is a fellow DT member for Pink Papery Studios. I have really enjoyed getting to know her over the last month. Her daughter sits near her and doodles and sketches while Jessica stamps (how cool is that?). Earlier this week, she created a card sketch for her mom to use; the sketch's will continue every Tuesday. I'm so excited about this because I love kids being interested in any artistic endeavor, be in drawing, painting, sculpting, whatever. My grandma was very talented and her home was filled with paintings that she did. I was always in awe of her ability. Now, I can't really draw much beyond a doodle and I grew up thinking that I wasn't any good at art and didn't have any creativity. My only claim to fame was my excellent penmanship (which completely got destroyed in college - why couldn't they have had laptops back then). It wasn't until I was a newlywed that I discovered stamping and it was like all this creativity just gushed out of me, as if a dam had been broken. I am so thankful to have the skills and talent that God has given me, thankful for the resources that I've been blessed with to continue to develop them, thankful for the friendships that have blessed my life as a result of stamping. There are times when I wish that I had known as a child that I had an artist inside me, that she had been freed years ago. And that's why I love it when kids get excited about creating - anything - stuff - whatever it is.

Anyway, this has gotten to be incredibly long and if you've stuck with me this long, then thank you. And know that you bless me everyday - and I hope to do the same for you!

Have a beautiful day!!

Simply Showcase

Happy Wednesday!! It's good to be back; I got sick last week and just didn't feel like doing anything!! And you know how it is, when you are sick, there is tons of "make-up" work to do!! When I was teaching, I always felt bad for kids that were out sick and came back to tons of make-up work plus the days work too!

For the Simply Sista's Showcase today, Lorelie challenged us to use glitter or sparkle in our card. We also got new images from Amy that will be available very soon! I missed last week due to being sick (it was to use scallops) so I combined it with this weeks challenge! This card just GLISTENS in real life!! That is SPARKLE you are seeing - not a grainy photo!

Very soon, Simply Sista's and Card Scents will all be housed in one online store called Pink Papery Studios. Amy has also expanded the product line and one of the new products is Shimmer It! and Shimmer It! Simply Sparkly. You can read more about it HERE. Amy included some of this in my last package and it is AWESOME!!! It is very thin - has a watery consistency to it (as compared to Radiant Pearls) and just looks lovely when applied. I started by brushing this all over the base of my chocolate chip card. Since it is so watery, a very light coat is needed as you don't want your paper to warp too much. Then I laid a set of stamps over it as it dried to help prevent the warping even further. The snowflakes are stamped with Encore Blue on the base and on the main panel, I used the same ink, just the 3rd generation stamp of the image for the very light color. After I colored my image, I brushed some more of the Shimmer It over the image....actually I dabbed it more than brushed b/c I didn't want to risk smearing anything! A pretty snowflake, stickles for snow and some pearls in the corners finish it off! I also ordered some new card scents and I think I'll scent this one with Icicles!

We'd love for you to join in our challenge with us this week! Link up your projects using glitter or any other type of sparkle so we can check it out!! Have a wonderful Wednesday and I'll see you soon!