Word Art Wednesday! and a Freebie!

Happy Word Art Wednesday everyone! I hope you stop over to the Blog and join in the fun, We have a inspiring and uplifting devotion by Karen Letchworth and another beautiful bible verse digitized by Karen Murry! This week we have two wonderful sponsors! The Project Bin $15  AND Imagine That! (Digital Prize).  You will really enjoy anything from either of these shops!

To Play:  go over to Word Art Wednesday and create a card, either with the verse or any family friendly card!  Enter it and that is it, there will be a random draw winner announced in two weeks! 

 Don't forget to mail that card and send someone a blessing!

Here is my Card for today

I find this verse so reassuring, even after walking with the lord for almost four decades!

A lovely spring freebie from Gecko Galz Spring Fling Stamp Collection

HAve a great day and don't forget to join the fun at Word Art Wednesday!

Ginny M

Whats cooking?

Winter here is cold, so far not to much snow, but lots of cold.  Perfect time to spend warming up the house with wonderful aromas from my whole food kitchen, which is now Gluten and Dairy free.  Since we have gone the DF and GF route ( due to food allergies) I've had to learn a whole new way of cooking, Honestly, I thought this was going to be rough.  But I am really enjoying the experience both in cooking and the improvement of my health.  I have now lost 50 pounds  that I been dragging me down. My overall general health is much improved.  I am thankful!

Here is what I did yesterday:



Gluten free flour made from home ground rices: 4 cups each: White rice, Sweet rice, Brown rice and 4 cups Cassava ( ground tapioca). all milled in my Vitamix

Highly season bread for making GF croutons and Bread crumbs. In the bread machine.

Bread sliced and ready to go in the dehydrator.

Cubed and dehydrated. Some will go into the vita mix for bread crumbs.

one loaf of bread yields a quart of croutons and a quart of bread crumbs. Cost $1.00, buying these organic and GF in the store would cost about $7.50!

Another loaf this time of Gf sandwich bread - GF breads often taste like saw dust, not this one, it is yummy and cost about $1.25 to make. GF bread in the store is about $4.75 a loaf.

Ready for grilling with a little Goat Mozzarella.

Olive Oil for grilling

Homemade Tomato basil soup $3.00 for 2.5 Quarts. Dairy free and organic.

The end result: YUM! a little dehydrated onion and kale for a tasty garnish. Eating Gluten free and Dairy free doesn't have to be the reported 242% increase in food cost ( that is a real statistic) Spending time in the kitchen and in cookbooks can yield wonderful affordable food that is good for you!

Hungry yet?  

Thanks for stopping by!

Ginny M

Great sale at Paper Temptress - Free shipping

I really thought this was worthwhile  to share with my readers and card making friends,

My friend Pat is having a great Sale:

To celebrate a new year and hopefully a better year PaperTemptress is offering FREE SHIPPING on the very gorgeous Valentine Day Speciality Pkg which works out to let you only pay $2.25 to ship up to another 50 sheets of any cardstock including any of the Copic Blending cardstock and only $7 shipping for up to another 400 sheets so a PERFECT time to add speciality cardstock to your paper stash!

The gorgeous Valentine Day Speciality pkg is 22 sheets of gorgeous specialty cardstock that coordinates to design very special Valentine Day cards... Here are the sheets of gorgeous cardstock that is included in the Valentine Day Speciality Pkg.
2 Wild Cherry Pop Tones 100#
2 Vintage Silver Lustre
2 Nero Incandescent
1 Pink Lemonade Pop Tones
2 Cotton Candy Pop Tones 100#
2 Gold Mica/Metallic text
1 Opal Mica/Metallic
2 Gold Pearl Linen
2 Virtual Pearl Iridescent text
2 Jupiter Red Mica/Metallic
2 Rose Quartz Metallic
1 Kraft 100#
1 Cream Velvet Touch!!
1 yd 5/8 Pretty Pink Crystalline Ribbon

Also on sale @ PaperTemptress.com. the whole Gorgeous 105# Mica/Metallic paper line is 25% off....plus all 12 sheets of Vellum is 30% off...great time to add GORGEOUS cardstock to help take your designs from great to AMAZING!

Time for me to make my valentine cards!

Thanks for stopping by,

Ginny M

Making a Cool Cat Card and a Few Tips and a Freebie

 Last Summer I received a very cool birthday card from my mothers' boyfriend ( yes she is 90 and they have been together for 18 years)  The card was simply a cat image with the words Cool Cat.  It was simple- only black on light green.  I was happy to receive it, but I got really excited because I have the image in my Magenta Rubber Stamp collection!  So I knew I had to make the BF a card.  He's been under the weather so I thought this would be a great get well/ thinking of your card!  he will get a big kick out of it!  Here is my card and a few tips:

I wanted to keep this in a monochrome palette, Gerry is 87, I know he will like this but I wanted to still have great contrast - to keep the card from being boring - a big risk working with Sepia colors

Here is a tip: ninety-five percent of the time I keep a small margin of space on my card base/background, it acts like a frame and gives the card another layer of sharp contrast.

Another tip:  because my cards are large; A6 or A7 size, I need to keep the weight down as much as possible.  I like to use 120# bases and good papers for layering.  I don't like paying a dollar for mailing.  To give the layers a finish and frame, I draw on the "frame" layer.  you can see in int eh picture above, I simply use a black alcohol marker and a ruler.  This saves me from buying tons of black background papers too!

When I am doing eyes, I keep it simple and layer my colors by two or three shades.  For really detailed images I might add more to include flecks.  When you are coloring you have to remember that you are working toward the end result.  Many colors may be involved in an image that you don't actually see but they are there and register in your brain. Don't be afraid to experiment, stamp off extra images and play, have fun.  In these eyes, I used two shades of Green and a couple dots of Turquoise

to give this great focal image a little more pop I added a layer of silver, I usually run my black marker on the edges of each piece, give the looks a tiny bit more depth and looks more finished.

These eyes kind of follow you where ever you go!

For this card, I used papers from my stash and this image is  4.5x4 (great for a focal image) 

by Magenta:

13.098.p

I thought I would share the "stamp" I made to go with this card, it is proportioned to go with the rubber stamp - Enjoy!

I hope you like my card and find my little tips and tricks helpful!

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Ginny M

Word Art Wednesday Challenge # 318-319

Happy Word Art Wednesday everyone! With all the crazy weather we are having everywhere I am really happy to stay home and craft!  How about you?  I hope you stop over to the Blog and join in the fun, We have a inspiring and uplifting devotion by Karen Letchworth and another beautiful bible verse digitized by Karen Murry! This week we have two wonderful sponsors!  The first is - Bossy Joscie $25    AND Cutting Cafe (Digital Prize).  You will really enjoy anything from either of these shops!

To Play:  go over to Word Art Wednesday and create a card, either with the verse or any family friendly card!  Enter it and that is it, there will be a random draw winner announced in two weeks!  Don't forget to mai8l that card and send someone a blessing!

I'll show you more how to details in an upcoming post.

Thanks for stopping by,

Ginny M

How to Create a Rich Digital Card with Texture and Foiling

Today I decided to play around a little with my foils and make a birthday card while I was at it!

I printed two images of this rich colored woman holding a lantern by Gecko Galz

Pulled out a piece of my Copper Transfer Foil by Scrpaperfect

I squggeled the adhesive on my watercolor background card ( from my stash)

went over it with a palette knife

Put the foil on top ( shiny side up) burnished with my finger (rubbed), let it sit for a few miniutes

Simply lifted the foil sheet off 

and built my card!

all of my layers and embellishments were held together with The Best Glue Ever

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you give this technique a try, it is a lot of fun and really gives an extra richness to your creations!

Ginny M

A Sweet Adoption Card

Today I've made a sweet Adoption card!  I think this is the first I ahve made for this type of event, I have friends that are soon to bring home a 7month old baby girl and I wanted to have something  special to put in her baby book.  I created this card using Paper Temptress Heavenly White 80# to print on and 120# Paper as the base  and the  Gecko Galz Stamps from  the Land of Nod Set.

I also used a piece of  scrapbook paper from my stash in the background

Suchh a happy occasion, I printed my stamp in a slate blue, as I originally intended to make this card with a blue palette, I changed my mind when I cam across this Cherry blossom paper. One nice thing about using digitals, you can easily change the stamp colors.  I stayed with the blue and decided it worked  well giving just a bit of contrast

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you have a great day!

Ginny M

Healthy things to do when it is so cold And why I went Gluten Free and a freebie

Here in Central New York, we've had a week of sub zero weather. So  this is what I have been doing inside: soaking and then dehydrating 12 lbs of Walnuts, Apples, today; Lemons,and then overnight Onions (Outside in the garage!).  Oranges and Lemons go into the water, we drink a lot and this gives the water a nice flavor boost and a few nutrients. I am also going to make my first batch of Ginger Beer today (non-alcoholic)

Why I've gone gluten and dairy free

 I have always had a lot of food allergies -since I was a little kid, but something happened to me in Texas and my Autoimmune system went a little haywire  and I developed even more allergies, so now I can't eat gluten, any kind of Dairy( including beef- Casein allergy) Chickpeas, Soy, Coconut Oil. So this has meant basically  I had to learn how to cook all over again. Gluten was a big thing, I thank God I had to make a trip to the ER last June, I had a cold which spiraled into a really bad asthma attack, After they got me breathing again the DR. noticed I was covered in hives and started listening to me when I had told her about how I had been feeling the last few years-the other Drs I went to said it was all in my head and I needed to go on anti-depression/anxiety meds! Because my blood work always came back pretty normal. I wasn't depressed I was having food allergies! So that ER Dr. thought I probably had a form of Celiac disease. So as of June 1st I (we) went gluten-free. It was a life changer! I am still working on the hives, The last thing was the coconut oil issue. However from going gluten-free ( and if I do eat gluten now I have a massive reaction- so I know I am gluten intolerant), My joint pain disappeared, I haven't had a cold, No more Asthma!!! The joint pain in my feet not only disappeared, but the joints went back to normal. my Bunions even shrunk! 3 weeks ago I gashed my hand while washing a broken glass - two inches long and so deep I could see all the layers of fat- I butterflied it together and in one week it was completely healed,, no infection and a pencil-thin scar. No more adult acne and I sleep every night! and if that isn't enough, I have lost 43lbs this year Steve has lost 20+ no more wheat bellies.No more pain after eating, I feel better than I ever have, it was like taking a turn back the clock pill. It takes about 1 year to heal a leaky gut caused by Gluten intolerance. And if that isn't enough, We love eating gluten free, it was a challenge, but now I can make my own Bread again , I am finding mixes that are delicious. I still cook everything from scratch, can, and dehydrate. We limit our overall carbs and don't use processed anything (including sugar) because of my food allergies -I really need to be careful. We have found our quality of life has improved dramatically. We eat alot of homemade soup, salads, organic as much as possible. Nuts, Seeds. Olive Oil, and careful selection of grains and beans. I truly love to cook and this has become a wonderful part of our life - and we save a lot of money because we eat much less. After spending a lot of time reading about all this and the autoimmune system, I learned something really important: being overweight is a symptom of being malnourished. When the body is nourished, it will not be crazy hungry and chemically imbalanced - driving itself to eat more to get the nutrients it desperately needs. We are fearfully and wonderfully made - made to enjoy our bodies and the Life God gave us. When we are sick and riddled with pain, look at the food source - if it is sick and full of chemicals and additives- how could our bodies not be? Processed foods are chemically laden with toxic, deadly chemicals - of course in small doses, but you spend a life time eating antifreeze and you will be sick. My first step was to get rid of processed food. I read every label. If you are interested in feeling better and enjoying life more; Stop eating processed food,  kick the sugars and the gluten. You will feel the withdrawal- then you WILL start to feel better!  Life here in NY is quite Cold for about 4 months of the year and we have to be able to take care of things inside and out - we need to be ready and able.  We want to enjoy our soon to be here retirement years and that means being prepared, Spiritually, Financially, Physically and Emotionally. Thanks for stopping by and here is a freebie! 

Ginny M

Manage

Word Art Wednesday!!

Happy Word Art Wednesday everyone! I hope you can find a few moments in teh nest week or so to stop by the Blog and andter or awesome challenge!  I ahve been traveling for the last two months and I have missed the WAW fun!  we have a beautiful devotion by Karen Letchworth and a KJV digitized scripture by Karen Murray - all top be a blessing to you at no cost AND prizes!This week We have some pretty Awesome Prizes! Wild Orchid Crafts (UK 15 pound prize) AND Paper Smooches (US Prize $25)!

Here is my Design Team entry:

I have been in the position where this verse meant everything and I did attsain the victory!

There is such sweet peace when you can trust in the Lord!

The verse by Karen is on  Word Art Wednesday Blog, I have added it to one of my frames for you to use:

I cut this with my brother  scan n cut  - I actually made a dozen!

Thanks for stopping by, Don't forget to make a card, mail it and enter the Challenge!

Have a great day!

Ginny M

How to Glue Glitter Card Stock, Embellishments and a Freebie

Happy New Year Everyone! May this be your Best Year Ever!

It is freezing sub zero cold here in Central NY and I was able to spend some time in my cozy warm craft room, So  I made a birthday card for a sweet little 7-year-old.  I wanted to use her favorite colors: Red, Brown, and Turquoise.  I thought using a bit of Glitter Cardstock would add a nice touch.

I used Best Glue Ever for all the embellishments and paper on this card: lace, felt, glitter and glitter cardstock it held it all on perfectly!

Glitter cardstock can be problematic  when it comes to adhesives, it is very heavy and the textured surface can be very difficult to get adhesion

Just a little will hold it perfectly!  No more score tape -one glue for all the layers.

The digital is by Gecko Galz

I really enjoyed making this whimsical card!

and thought I would leave you the sentiment digital that I made:

If you have an electronic cutter, this comes out beautifully!

Thanks for stopping by and stay warm!

Ginny M