The Blooming Cross

This post was originally featured on Faithfully Yours. Easter is a time to celebrate the miraculous. God coming to us restoring a relationship with Him. God taking someone dead and not only bringing that person back to life but giving us that were dead in our sins a chance to come back to life in Christ. Because of the message and the project I thought it was fitting to share here as well for Easter.

To me, the most wonderful thing about scrapbooking is being able to relive those special memories when you turn the pages of your album. This page is especially dear to me because of the story it tells. The story is one of those miracle moments that God used to assure my mom everything was going to be ok.

Hidden Journaling Card reads: Emily made an Easter dish garden for Grandma. Imagine her surprise though when the grass in the dish garden wasn’t the only thing growing! To make the crosses I cut down branches from a shrub in our yard. Most of the branches were dead and those that were not had all the buds removed and then were cut down to 3 and 4 inch lengths. We then tied these together with hemp twine. When mom had Emily trim back the grass they were both in for a surprise. The center cross (the one representing where Jesus died.) made of twigs, that had their buds removed and then cut into 3 or 4 inch lengths and tied together with twine and stuck into a pot of dirt, was GROWING! They both were so excited to see the growth against all odds! Even more amazing to me, when Mom saw it she felt such a sense of peace! She’s been dealing with a lot lately, chemo has been taking its toll on her and she felt like Jesus’ cross growing was a sign to her that everything was going to be ok!



 Tips: Sometimes a story is just too long or even too personal to include in the main design on your page. Using hidden journaling-which in this case consisted of a pull out card behind a photo mat. Allows you to tell the story the way you want to , but not have it as the main focus of the page. The decoration along the side of the hidden journaling disguises it to look like an embellishment on the photo mat. If the journaling is something of a personal nature just put the page into your album as is. Only you would know to take it out to read the hidden story. If the journaling is something you want others to read. Cut a slit into your page protector where the journaling card can easily slide out. This allows for access to the journaling but still protects your page. When cutting the page protector, mark the cut line off first with a grease pencil or wipe off marker. Remove the layout from the protector, then insert a cutting mat. Carefully using a ruler and a straight cutting knife cut along the line you drew. Reinsert your page then thread the pull tab for the journaling card through the slit to make it known to your reader that it can be pulled out

Supplies used: Glorious Morning collection (Faithfully Yours), Chipboard Thickers, Metal Crosses from Momenta, assorted ribbon, white cardstock.

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April 20, 2013-3rd Annual Crop for Operation Christmas Child-

Do you scrapbook, make cards or enjoy some other type of craft? Grab your supplies and and join us for a full day of crafting, food, friends and fun!


Let's Make a Deal"is the theme of the 3rd Annual Fundraiser Crop for Operation Christmas Child. 
When: April 20, 2013
            9:00am -9:00 pm
Where: 304 E. Jackson St.
             Morris, IL
           (Living Word Bible Church)
         NOTE NEW LOCATION
Cost: $30 prior to April 6th, $40 at the door if there is space available  your cost includes, Lunch, Dinner, Snacks, Drinks, Goodie Bag ($30+ value,) and More!!

For more information visit the event page

Easter Dish Gardens

This project was floating around pinterest last year and we decided we just had to make them! We loved the idea of a living growing reminder of Jesus' death and resurrection at Easter.

Supplies needed:

1 large flower pot saucer or dish
1 small 2-3" flower pot
Potting soil
Grass Seed (hardy shade loving variety we found worked best)
Pebbles,
1 large stone
6- twigs 3-4 inches in length
twine
cutters or scissors
Bucket
Water




Directions:
1) Place a layer of pebbles in the dish to help with drainage.

2) Pour some of the potting soil into the bucket, add water. Mix well.  Careful with how much water you add, you don't want it runny, you just want it to be able to hold together when you make a pile.

3) Lay your small flower pot on its side and then using the potting soil, pile the soil all over the flower pot making a "hill" leave the opening of the flower pot and the stones in front uncovered.

4) Cover the soil with your grass seed pressing it into the soil with your hands.
5) Using the twine tie two of the sticks together forming a cross shape, trim up if necessary. Repeat with other twigs.

6) Place the crosses in the dirt as shown,
7) Mist seeds thoroughly with water

8) Continue to mist daily, seeds will sprout in 7-10 days.

Enjoy your living reminder of Easter!

Where has the time gone!

Wow, I can't believe how fast my kids are growing up. My little girl isn't so little anymore and is becoming a lovely young lady. My son is turning into an amazing young man This evening I got to them off to prom.  Since we homeschool, the kids go to a "prom" sponsored by one of the local churches. They met some friends at the event (that are also homeschooled.) I found a picture of 3 of the four of them from several years back on "crazy hat" day.

 Looking at them now I only catch glimpses of the smiling young faces of yesterday, but that's ok. I love seeing who they are becoming!

They call me "MOM"

With the festivities of Mother's day this past weekend, I didn't have a chance to share one of my favorite pages.

The light tan is a hidden journaling spot that reads: I always wanted to be a mom, cause I had such a great one! I couldn't believe when you came into my life. One by one you changed me with your smiles and your love. Each one of you is special and amazing, every day I marvel that the Lord has given you to me and that you call me "mom"!

When I was taking this years "mother's day" photos I was thinking about this page. How grown-up all my kids are getting. They have changed in so many ways since this page was created. My oldest is now 6'4" my younger son is now taller (by over a head) than his "big" sister. But the changes have been more than just physical. Their convictions are stronger. Their passions are greater. They have new hobbies and friends. Their love has grown and expanded. I get to see the young men and women they are becoming and they are amazing people and still they call me "mom" and because of that I am very very blessed!

Supplies: MME laundry line, Prisim cardstock, MME Bohemian embossed chipboard, AC letter stickers, prima flowers, Heidi Swapp gemstones, Border from? (it's from an old MWE kit) glue dots, and fiskars adhesive.

Tie Dying!

I love our homeschool group. We meet for field trips, special classes and once a month meet for activity day. Activity days have different themes could be science related or history themed, or occupations, or just fun days. This was our last activity day of the school year so we had a field day. This year I again had the privilege of helping the kids tie dye shirts. Being a crafter I have tie dyed before but it's usually with the store bought dyes. For our activity day there is an AWESOME gal named Cheri that gets all of the supplies for it and the good stuff, the professional strength doesn't run off in the wash dye. Now it's always crazy doing this type of project with so many kids but I LOVE it. (Granted I do come home a bit "colorful") Even though things are crazy before we clean up, I get a chance to sneak in a project of my own.

This year I wanted to try making a tie dyed heart.
I saw a fabulous video on Tulip

The process was simple but took some patience to get things lined up.  First you dampen your shirt and fold it in half. Then using a pencil draw a 1/2 of heart shape (like you were going to cut one out of paper.)

Then carefully starting at the bottom of the heart fold and scrunch the shirt up along the line. You want your pencil marks to line up in a straight line. When you are finished scrunching you can adjust the folds to make sure things line up perfectly.










Then tightly rubber band it. Follow with a second one about an inch away from the first for a double heart.

Finally add additional bands underneath depending on the number of colors or personal preference.  I only wanted two colors to alternate to make it really stand out.  Those colors are actually Orange and Pink but it looks read both in the photo and real life.

For dying, the "top color" will be the center of the heart, the 2nd space is the "space around the heart" the 3rd space is your outside heart. Finally the rest of the shirt color.

After the dye has set, and you have removed the bands your shirt will look like:





















I have a blast doing this. I thank Cheri for being our "fearless" leader into the world of tie-dye  and all the moms that I have privilege to work with that make the day so much fun!

Scrap Challenge the sequel

So when I made the shadow box canvas I had a piece of canvas left over from where I cut out the canvas to form the shadow box. I saved it because it was a nice piece of mod-podged canvas and knew I could figure out something to do with it. Today in the midst of my second round of using your scraps challenge I decided what to do with it. Since it was sturdy and covered in music, I figured it would be a good basis for a book mark for my violin playing girls.


 I pulled out my Fiskars Ultra Shape Express and my
 Journaling/Bracket template and cut out a couple of shapes and then used a smaller template to cut out tabs to hold the book mark in place. Some ribbon thread through the hole punched in the top and then a quick monogram with some velum stickers. To finish them off I added a music note I punched out of vinyl. 

My daughters being not just violin players but avid readers LOVED the combination of their two favorite hobbies!

Supplies used: Canvas scrap, photo copied music, "antiqued"(Tim Holtz distress Ink-Vintage photo), Mod Podge, Ribbon, Velum Stickers-font wordsworth, black vinyl, Fiskars- Ultra Shape Express Journaling and Bracket Template, music note punch, Crop-a-dial.