Unwind

I'm unwinding from a busy happy weekend; Entered this last minute in an OSA Challenge:

Hope you had a great weekend too!

Thanks for stopping by,

Ginny M

Love is

I am Happily busy working on last minute shower favors for our soon to be  daughter in law.  Finishing up tea cups and I made these cards to sit as flags in antique soup tureens for the table center pieces.

I thought I would share them with you!

The Verse if from Karen Murrays' free printable section I added the flowers:

Have a wonderful day and I hope it is filled with what Love Is!

Ginny M

Word art Wednesday and being thankful

Today is Word Art Wednesday and I loved the beautiful verse Karen Murray did for this weeks Anything Goes Challenge

Karen Letchworth  Starts here weekly devotion with this quote:

"This is a WONDERFUL verse because it reminds us that our faith must ALWAYS rest in the power of God. "  Please read the rest of this important post.  There is nothing more important in our lives than understanding the Word Of God.  We need to have it in our hearts and minds.

I was driving home from my mothers yesterday and since the AC in my vehicle isn't working I thought I'd better sing to keep myself awake, so I was singing/praying/praising.  

Part of that included these words:

Lead me Lord, I want to live with you all of my days, 

Teach me Lord, I want to walk in all of your ways.

Help me Lord, you are my strength,

Thank you Lord for loving  and keeping me.

We need to know the word, It is life, it is hope and it is peace.

My faith Stands in God.

Here is my card:

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you take the time to enter Word Art Wednesday Challenge, and then mail that card to someone to encourage them in their day.  

The Women over at WAW are hard working time crunching ladies that prayerfully bring you this blessing each week - they do an amazing job!  Thank you Word Art Wednesday!

Ginny M

I have/had a dream

I'm not sure what you would call it , But I have this wonderful idea of having workshops out of my home.  I've had a bunch but in my present home I have room only for about 6-8 woman at a time and that is crowded!  My dream is to have a studio where I can host workshops and maybe even weekend retreats!  I'd love to be able to host 15-20 women at a time, have card making workshop, Christian womens' gatherings' Prayer, Fellowship and of course Food (healthy)  All in the same space!!

Part of that dream s to have things ready made and ready to create whether you like real rubber or digitals, have it all there and ready to go!  I am working towards having my own line of Christian rubber stamps made and of course I am excited about that!

I have vendors lined up for other supplies - this could be a totally one stop place!  The first thing and my personal passion is to have thousands of bible verse ready to be die cut or cut down for card makers.  Would you like to walk up to a file system and pull your favorite verse??  I would! So that is what I am working on right now.  Someday I would love to have a beautiful library card file cabinet FULL of verses and sentiments 

ready to be made into cards

Right now I have this, and I believe it will hold me over till I can find and afford a library cabinet

I craig listed this dresser about 6 years ago, it is oak and it weighs a ton.  I need to work a little on the finish, it has been in the garage for a few years and held DVDs and such.

It will hold my cards:

three wide - I have mad a slight adjustment to teh printing.  my template is now set for 8x11 this will give me a 4 up print that will allow for lots of die cutting room! judging by the depth of the drawers , I should be able to house  at least 8,000 cards.  That is a whole lot of verse and Sentiments!!

I'm going to keep an index using a sample placed in a page protector with the location noted on the sample card.  I thought this would make things easy and inspiring for the workshops guests.

I can see it happening!

For your card making, one of my new 4 up sets:

This template is set for 8x11 size paper. right click and save for your card making.

One thing I find more and more, women enjoy the friendships of other women.  For the most part Quilting bee's are a thing of the past, but the need to create and chat and relax and have fun with like minded friends is still very much alive and needed!  

I am excited about this dream I have, I want to reach out with The word and help others to too! 

It is the power of life!  And we all need to be encouraged, sometimes a "thinking of you" from someone can make or break a day!

Thank you for stopping by and maybe I'll see you in one of my workshops!!

Ginny M

Word Art Wednesday and life in fast lane

Life right now is in the very fast lane, high speed family changes.  Wedding, Selling the house, moving, kids moving.  It is all good, it is all exciting and we feel all in the will of God for our lives. But it is a lot happening all at once. A lot of lane changing for Steve and I as we begin to recreate our lives.  I know I have said this before, and I will say it til the end of my days. 

I am thankful for the unchanging Mercy of the Lord and for His Word

 that truly is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.    

I woke up yesterday with a mountain load of things to get accomplished, and the verse from Deuteronomy 30:14 came to my mind: 

'But the WORD is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, That thou mayest do it.'

I Love that verse but it has been a long time since it has come to my mind.  I looked it up first thing and thought thank you Lord, this is my compass for the day, I need to accomplish something that was not on my task list.  I trusted He would let me know what it was. 

The first thing I did after reading a bit and praying was to go online to see what my favorite blog had for the day : Word Art Wednesday 

I was so surprised to see that very verse in Deuteronomy!

As the went on, that verse gave me the courage to do and say a few things with confidence, that I had to plan to say and do.  God is like that, He works in ways that baffle us.  His timing is always perfect as is His love for us.

Here is my card for the Word Art Wednesday challenge 

It is simple

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you feel the Spirit of hope and Love in your day!

Ginny M

Image prompt

Over at OSA this weeks' challenge was to use a fashion photo as a prompt .  of course it must be Asian and it must  have a hand stamp on it.




Here is my take:


The fashion photo:

my card:

I thought I had polka dot paper and I am sure if I had had the energy I could have turned this into polka dot paper but I like it as is!

Thanks for stopping by!

Ginny M

sound barrier needed

Yesterday I spent quite a bit of time in my kitchen, I made 16 quarts of chilli and canned them.
I've decided to turn my freezer off and save the dollars it takes to run it.  For the most part it is only half full.  I buy spices and flour in bulk, which will get portioned and sent to the deep freeze.  I'm not trying to build up a store house of food in the event of a disaster.  I am trying to keep up with a busy lifestyle that includes  a family that likes to eat, good food, made from scratch and organic if possible.
I spend a lot of time at homemaking and I enjoy every minute.  My oldest sister Cherie got me going on this 35 years a go with a simple sunset cookbook called "MAKE A MIX COOKERY"  It was a great idea then and still his.  I've always cooked ahead and made mixes ahead.  I have relied on my big freezer for big batches of just about everything.   The down side of that is they are expensive to run and if you have a power outage for any length of time, you run the risk of loosing everything in it. 

So that being said I have always wanted to can.  I had a friend in high school that used to "put up" everything her husband grew in there amazing garden.  They had a room the size of a 1 car garage filled with shelves that were filled with beautiful jars containing the reddest tomatoes and greenest beans and everything tasted delicious.  Charlotte would feed her family thorough out the winter with the best of foods grown in her own back yard. 
As I become more health conscious and more knowledgeable in food science, I am learning to "put up"  food for my family.  Last week I made 12 pints of apple butter and it came out delicious. This week I found a  24 qt pressure canner on craigslist for 25.00.  I have watched you tubes as I have no one here to teach me and I have purchased a bevy of used books from Amazon on food preserving. Jars, lids and tongs are a part of the the needed equipment. all of these things will cost less than a couple of months of electricity to run the freezer.
Thursday I purchased ground beef, pork and turkey on sale, cooked it all up along with the other essentials for chili.  Total cost for the batch $26.00 for 16 quarts of wonderful chili.  I now have 13 quarts ready and waiting to become a meal on a busy day.

I cooked the Chili up the night before and let it simmer over night, that being done I had a clean kitchen to start the canning process.  My kitchen is very small ( but super efficient) Doing things in stages and cleaning after each one is very important.
With the Jars prepped and ready , I filled and sealed and put them in my pressure canners according to directions for food type and altitude.

                                               16 quart and 24 quart canners in action:

 

Now while these were processing for 90 minutes - two pressure cookers going full speed ( can you hear it? )  I had F-16's flying over practicing for this weekends air show, the cookers and the planes were bothering the Great Dane who also barked for 90 minutes non stop. 

I walked into my craft room to get away form some of the noise and I stepped on a glue bottle which the cat running around knocked over.  The glue bottle sounded like a gun going off which made the dog and the cat run.  I think I lost it a little and yelled at the dog to shut up - 85 minutes into               the bark-a-thon.  Which thankfully he did.

I think the blue angles shut down for lunch too..

This is what happens when you step on a glue bottle:

Here is some of my Chili!

Next in the Que, a non dairy cream of mushroom soup!!  No more yucky canned soup for sauces and definitely not for eating!  I'll have homemade, preservative and chemical free with the best of ingredients.  Yum

Thanks for stopping by!!

Ginny M

Word Art Wednesday an birthday cards

Word Art Wednesday has a beautiful verse and devotion this week to go with their anything goes challenge!

Here is the verse:

and here is may card (s) this batch will become birthday cards!

Thanks for stopping by!

Ginny M

Tried something a little different

I had a tiger swap card to make for an OSA swap today.  I tried something a little different.

I stamped my tiger with Stazon and just worked in Tim Holtz Inks

 My first attempt was very random , I just wanted to get a feel for the ink on the glossy paper.  I grabbed photo paper by accident.

I started working the inks and felt like I wanted a more controlled application

Using small sponges I got the look I was wanting

Finished card.

Fun, give it a try!

Thanks for stopping by

Ginny M

Under the wire

I'm posting today for the Word Art Wednesday May 6th challenge - nothing like last minute.

                     Tomorrow there will be a new verse and new devotion and a new challenge.                                 That is one thing about the Word Of God, It really is new every day.  

Here is the verse:

One of the things I love most about the Lord is that he never changes, He is the same yesterday, today and forever.  No rule changes no capriciousness.  

His remains Immutable, His Love and plan for our lives is perfect.  Even when we go astray, he loves us still.  That alone is reason to seek Him and to rejoice .

Here is my simple card

I hope you take time to hop over to Word Art Wednesday and join the inspiration!!

envelope challenges

I belong to a face group called addicted to card making, it is a fun group that does swaps and challenges, I thought I'd show you one, they are a challenge!

With an envelope challenge you never know what is coming your way.  The rules are simple,
you have to use everything you get or at least part of it and you can add one stamped image and 2 embellishments.

For this month, here is a picture of what came in the envelope:

White card base with a very nice dry embossed element in the corner - very hard to see in the corner in this photo.

Here is what I came up with:

my stamp was the digi bird/flower and my embellishments were the ink and the piece of silver card. Kinda hard to see the doily, I put the focal image down a little to far, unfortunately I could not move it with the double stick tape. 

These are a lot fun to do, I am not always successful with them. But since this is a card an not a world peace treaty, it is worry free!

Thanks for stopping by!

Ginny M

happy Mothers day and a little gift

I hope all of you are enjoying today, whether you are a mother by  Nurture or by nature - Happy Mothers day!!
My mothers Mothers day card, the tag I made using the font card Virginia ( my full name!) It is considered an Art Nouveau font, which fits with this image.

for your card making:

Thank you for stopping by,

Ginny M

Images for you

After Yesterday's marathon of birthday card making and mailing, I am back on a major spring purge.  I have my paper business and my sewing business, card making hobby and art quilting hobby.
I you would like to know how to acquire a ton of things quickly - get a hobby.  The stuff multiples over night!  Now I am in the process of removing what I am not using, not going to use and what I won't have space for ( more about that later).  So since you took the time to stop here I am going to leave you with some beautiful Asian images for your card making! Enjoy!

A few back ground papers:

Florals:

Focal images:

And of course Geisha

Hope you enjoy these!

Thanks for stopping by!

Ginny M

Oriental Birthday Cards and a freebie

I'm trying to get back on track with my birthday cards, today I got the month of Mays done for family, friends and groups!  I thought I would share a few Oriental Stamp Art Cards I made and leave you with a freebie!  Enjoy!

and for your card making, Plum blossoms and cranes by Hiroshige:

 I used this with a gray base and it really popped, I have never used gray on a birthday card!

Thank you for stopping by!

Ginny M