Smokin' w/You & Me

During the month of June, order a You & Me kit for only $15 (a retail value of $34.95), and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the American Red Cross 2011 Floods and Tornadoes relief operations. Contact me today to place your order for this sensational kit and help those in need at the same time. The You & Me: Stronger Together campaign will continue until June 30 at 11:59 pm (MDT) or while supplies last.

The placement of the donations is prioritized by the American Red Cross, with all money earmarked for disaster relief from the tornadoes and flooding in the midwestern and southeastern United States.

This is 1 layout I've made with this trendy and versatile kit. I used the sketch from the challenge at www.heart2heartchallenges.blogspot.com..  All patterned paper and stamps are from the You & Me Kit.  The lettering was cut with our Kraft paper using the Cricut Old West Cartridge.  Ink used is Chocolate. 
The cloth house strip was from my stash but all other supplies are Close To My Heart.  To distress the center strip, I rubbed a baby wipe down the edges of the strip to moisten it.  Using a distressing block and my fingers, I sanded and rolled to get the look I wanted.

What a Week

Have you missed me?  I've certainly missed blogging! My absence began when my youngest son broke his arm last week for the SECOND time this YEAR!  This time he had an open break that required surgery and a 2 day hospital stay.  Memorial Day weekend was spent recovering from our sheer exhaustion of the ordeal.  All looks well and he should heal quickly.

The day after Memorial Day a dear friend of mine passed away after struggling her entire life with health issues.  I am writing a devotional about her amazing faith and will post that in the coming months.  


My 2 boys have had finals all week and have been exempt from some tests but of course not on the same schedule!  So, I have made multiple trips to the school dropping off and picking up.  Friday required FOUR trips!

When I thought I could take some time to post, our internet went out and has just now come back on.  I hope it is fixed and not a temporary state!  How's your world been?

I have a quick card I did a while back as thank you notes to donors for my MS Walk I will share with you today and then will hopefully complete the new H2H challenge on Monday and get that posted.

I used all Close To My Heart products.  The stamp set is  "A Paisley"-only $7.95!.  I used Magnifique and Smoothie CTMH inks.  The base is Smoothie and White Daisy Card Stock.  The sparkly and sprig of ric rac is from my stash.  Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy!

Grab the Promised Hope

Belinda Kersey 1/25/09

God’s Word

We who have run for our very lives to God have every reason to grab the promised hope with both hands and never let go. It's an unbreakable spiritual lifeline, reaching past all appearances right to the very presence of God where Jesus, running on ahead of us, has taken up his permanent post as high priest for us Hebrews 6:18-20 The Message

The Song “Our Hope Endures” by Natalie Grant

My Thoughts “How do we comprehend peace within pain” are words from a song that speak to every person who has ever experienced pain of any kind.  Unfortunately, in this world there are so many ways to experience pain- pain of loss, pain of sickness, pain of despair.  But God has provided one way to experience utter peace in any pain, to “endure the worst of conditions”, to have hope in the very center of the hopeless situation and that is to know that Emmanuel-our God is with us and that he is the rock we can hold onto in  every trial we face.
  

When our bodies are racked by disease but we can say that “our hope is unchanged” we have reached the point where God is our all sufficient one.  When “the sun stays hidden for years” and our hope still endures then we have come to the place where we know beyond all doubt that God is truly our Emmanuel-He is with us and He is enough.

Some say that I have a positive outlook because I have joy even in the face of an incurable disease.  In fact, before returning to the work force, I had a psychological evaluation to determine my best skills and my ability to reenter the workforce.  The psychologist determined that I took the life outlook test “defensively”, that I intentionally chose the answers that would show me as the most positive possible.  Well, what that man did not know about me is, despite the circumstances, I do have a hope and I do believe that my situation is positive because I know the Creator of my body, mind and soul.  That Creator has promised me wholeness and has promised me that He is with me every moment and I stand firm on those promises.

I did not have to be “defensive” in my test taking to show myself in the best light-no, I took the test with God’s light shining through me!  “It’s more than (my) optimism!.”  It is Christ in me, it is El Shaddai who is more than sufficient in ALL areas of my life.

It is the resolve that Job had when he told his wife “Why do I go out on a limb like this and take my life in my hands? Because even if he killed me, I'd keep on hoping.”  This is the resounding hope I have grabbed with both hands and we will never let go. “We never walk alone, this is our hope.  Our hope endures the worst of conditions. It's more than our optimism, let the earth quake our hope is unchanged!”

Your Response

Look to the heavens from where your hope comes.  Thank your Creator for walking beside you in this storm.  Thank Him for the hope that is found in Him.

 

Inspired Stamps is in the process of selecting their first Design Team.  I am applying and hoping that I am selected.  Antoinette's stamps are all scripture/scripture related stamps.  I really enjoy using the scriptures in my cards and layouts. This is one of the 1st cards I made using one of the scripture stamps.  It  is one of my fave scriptures and one I've repeated often to my boys through the years.  In fact, my youth pastor son had a cross and Phil. 4:13 tattooed on his back when he became an adult!  I wan't happy about the tat but couldn't argue with the design!

Anyhoo-I used all Close To MY Heart card stock in colors that complemented the rose pattern paper (can't remember who makes it).  I also used Hollyhock ribbon and ink from CTMH.  The bow is a piece of leftover CTMH rose ribbon that I cut and manipulated into a bow.  Button from CTMH and rhinestone from my stash.

Family Canvas

 

I have been doing my best to "use what I have" and I have a bunch!  So, when www.heart2heartchallenges.blogspot.com announced an ABC Challenge (anything but a card) it gave me the push I needed to use up my canvases I've been "saving". 

This is the one I made for the challenge using my Wings papers from Close To My Heart.  This is one of the most versatile packs of paper we have because of the diversity of patterns and colors.  You may have to click on the top photo to see all the details but I matted the photo of my parents, me and my siblings on 3 different stacked mats from the Wings papers to give it importance.  The banner conveys my feelings of what I feel to have both of my parents and 4 siblings alive and living nearby.  Love them all so much!

I made the flowers using our 2"scalloped circle punch.  I just slit the circles every 3rd scallop to create the petals and then stacked 3 together and pierced with a button brad.  Then I fluffed them until I was happy with the look. This project did not use a lot of supplies but I think it packs a punch with the colors and embellies I chose.

Supply list from Close To My Heart

Wings B & T Paper

Button brads

Pleated Juniper Ribbon

Juniper and Black ink

Sophia Stamps

Circle of Love stamps

Non-CTMH

black lace-Michaels

hat pins-stash

Banner chipboard-Maya Rd

Silver paint-stash

Baker's Twine-Crafty Scrapper

Canvas-Michaels

Still Standing

Belinda Kersey 2/25/08

God’s Word

Ephesians 6:13 “Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”

The Song

“Still Standing” by Israel Houghton and Cindy Cruse Ratcliff


As we were learning this song in choir rehearsal, I was taken back to that same date six years before.   I had been lying in a bed at Harris Methodist Southwest Hospital on that Wednesday night in 2002.  My church was earnestly praying for me because they had received word that my kidneys had shut down and that I would not be walking again.  The reality was that my bladder was not functioning, I couldn’t walk, my hands were extremely numb and not working well, my eyesight was blurred. Basically, I was completely helpless.

I had entered the hospital on Monday after suffering through a weekend of pain following a fall on Friday.  I had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis just a short 3 months before.  The progression of my disease was overwhelmingly fast and very rare.  Tell-tale lesions had been discovered on my brain in November 2001 but were not on my spine.  Now, 3 months later they were appearing on my spine as well, thus explaining the rapid deterioration of my mobility.

Hubby Jeff, had been asked by my neurologist if our legal affairs were in order.   Those words were more devastating to him than any of the facts from my MRI.  Needless to say, things looked pretty bleak for me.  Death was not suggested or expected but a life of extreme disability seemed to lay ahead of me.  Oh, as if all of this was not enough, there was a shake-up going on at Jeff’s job and he wasn’t sure if he’d be employed at the end of the week.  In fact, it was suggested that he better limit the time he took off work to be with me at the hospital.

You see, apparently Satan was intent on knocking us down and keeping us there.  He wanted us to believe that God's plans for us were to harm us!  That’s why this song brought back all of that to me.  It declares “I’m still standing, but by the grace of God.”  Now, my story would be awesome if that prayer service my church had that Wednesday had resulted in my walking out of the hospital completely healed.  

As you know, it didn’t happen that way.  However through it all God “gave courage to believe that all (His ) goodness I would see.”  My friend, Wendy, came to see me the day after that prayer service.  She told me she had been so mad at what was happening to me that she “gave God a good talking to”.  She then went on to relate that God listened and then told her to settle down because her friend was going to be just fine.  You know what, she heard right!  Even though I wasn’t healed then and haven’t seen my complete healing yet, I’m just fine.  We’ve had much more to go through over the last several years but we know that “if not for (His) goodness, if not for (His) grace, (we) don’t know where (we) would be today...if not for (His) mercy, if not for (His) love, (we) most likely would have given up.  If not for (His) favor (we) could never say,  I’m still standing.”

As Steve Bryant, our music minister, said-we are like a Bozo the Clown toy that gets punched and then pops back up again.  The enemy has taken many shots at us over the last six years but here we are- still standing!  Despite the circumstances, Jeff was one of TWO people out of fifteen who were “still standing” with their jobs at the end of the shake-up.  Despite the loss of my ability to walk, I am stronger now, I can see clearly (except for being old and needing reading specs!), the lesions on my spine have been gone since 2004 and I can take care of all of my own physical needs.  And, as of February 2008 I have returned to work part-time!  So, “to (Him) I lift my offering, and set my heart on higher things.  For if it had not been for (Him) standing on my side, where would I be?”

Thank God that he is not going to leave you where you are at this very moment.  Make a bold statement that by the grace of God, no matter what the circumstances, you are still here and you are still standing.

May Stamp of the Month-Chair, Chair!

The May Stamp of the Month ( which you can get at a discount or free) at Close To My Heart is "Chairs To You" and as the title suggests, it is full of adorable chair images and related sentiments.  These are the first 2 cards I have done with the set.  I am  submitting the them to the technique challenge at www.heart2heartchallenges.blogspot.com.  I don't have a favorite technique...I like to keep  things new and fresh and try all of them-most of the time I use several on a project:-)  However, for this challenge I am highlighting "selective coloring" and "popping" ( at least that's my name for them!)

For the selective coloring, I simply started with a  black ink impression of the chair.  After it dried, I selectively colored in 1 element of the chair-the cushion.  It kinda gives it the look of a wrought iron chair this way.  Then to enhance it even more, I stamped the heart and colored it in with a marker then cut it out and used foam adhesive to "pop" it off the back of the chair.  This technique adds great dimension to the card.

On the bottom card, I used my markers to color in 2 of the chairs in brown and then the other in lavender. I hope you can see the shading and approve-I am working very hard to figure out that technique! Another technique on this card is to use a stamp or 2 to create my own background paper-in this instance, both the cardbase and mat are stamped.  I kept it simple to keep the lavender chair as my focus.

CTMH Supplies used on pink card:
Baby pink and White Daisy cardstock
Sophia B & T papers
Chairs To You stamps
Black and Hollyhock ink
Scallop punch
Other: Copic markers, Baker's Twine

CTMH supplies for purple card:
Cardstock
Scallop punch
Chairs to You stamps
Tea Time Stamps
You and Me Stamps
Chocolate and Gypsy Inks
Other:
Baker's Twine
Copic Markers