A New Year

On the first day of the year, 1998, my sister stepped into eternity. I have missed my first friend. I have wished we could have raised our children together the way many sisters do-sharing funny stories, giving each other advice, encouraging one another. I have felt an emptiness that cannot be filled with anyone other than a sister. I know one day, this short time that we inhabit on earth will all make sense. Until I know, I trust in the ONE who is all knowing and in control. The God that lovingly laid down His life for myself...and my sister.

Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.
Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it?
I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:18,19

Twas the Birthday of a King

In the little village of Bethlehem
There lay a child one day
And the sky was bright
With a holy light
O'er the place where Jesus lay.

Alleluia
O how the angels sang!
Alleluia
How it rang!
And the sky was bright
With a holy light
'Twas the birthday of a King.

Humble birthplace
But O
How much God gave to us that day!
From the manger bed what a path has led
What a perfect holy way.

Alleluia
O how the angels sang!
Alleluia
How it rang!
And the sky was bright
With a Holy light
'Twas the birthday of a King
- William Harold Neidlinger

My watercolor was inspired by the artwork of Geninne Zlatkis.

Using a Variety of Stamps for Christmas Greetings

Wow! What a snowy weekend we had here in West Virginia. Fortunately I just got my Christmas greetings in the mail before the snow and power outages began. We lost power but not for too long for which I am thankful. Last year and this year instead of sending traditional cards, I sent postcards. Last year, so many people asked how I made them that I decided to blog about it. You can see the tutorial under my February 2, 2008 post. Postcards are so quick and easy to write on once made. Postage is also a little cheaper which helps around this holiday season. In previous posts this December I have talked about using various stamps to create different designs and backgrounds on paper.

A couple of weeks ago, I showed how you can make this snowy design on paper. Kind of fitting for this weekend. Well, what if this paper became the background for your postcard? I took this paper, scanned it into my computer and printed out 4"by 6" copies. The basic size for a postcard.

I wrote about how I made this design a week ago using one stamp and an inchie punch.

What if you took this one stamp again and instead of using green and red ink you used blue and silver? Use your inchie punch, add a navy blue backgound. and create the same kind of design.

Then take that inchie cut design and adhere it to your snowy background. It looks really pretty just like this but I wanted to add one more thing for the message I wanted to say.

I decided to use two different stamps. A compass rose and a celtic cross. I stamped and embossed them using opaque white powder on black cardstock. I wanted a different kind of cross image...one that showed direction. I cut out the stamped designs, then trimmed more, glued, and came up with this:

Using raised glue dots I adhered this cross over the previous snowy image, inchie design and scanned it into the computer. I saved this image and had to do one more thing... It needed words.

Finding just the write thing to say took some time. I finally found an old medieval saying in a quotation's book. Using photo editing software, and playing around a bit, I added the quote onto my scanned image. I then printed out 4" by 6" copies of this design. I sprayed a fine mist of fixative on each card and glittered the cross just to add a bit of sparkle. Lastly I used a glue stick to adhere a basic "postcard" design to the back. Add your greeting, address and stamp and you're ready to mail.

Deck The Halls

Decking the halls is one of my favorite things to do this time of year.

With One Stamp

Here in West Virginia a blustery wind has blown in bringing light snow and frigid temperatures. What a good excuse to stay cozy inside and use my imagination. Creating with stamps are so much fun. Look through your stamp collection and select one image. It can be a Christmas stamp or any other you choose. This Christmas design is by Inkadinkado. I bought it this year at Michael's.

Take that stamp and ink it with any color you decide. I used a rich red. You can also ink it again and again in other colors. You judge how many variations you want. I chose two colors for the season. Red and Green.

Next, look at your stamped design. Imagine only being able to see a one inch by one inch square in any part of the stamped picture. (You may want to cut out a one inch by one inch opening in a piece of cardstock and move it around the stamped design to help you choose) Now with an inchie punch cutter or measuring and cutting with scissors, cut from your stamped pattern several one inch squares. As you can see, some of the images I decided on were faces or people or just interesting pictures.

After I determined how many squares I wanted and then cut accordingly, I measured and trimmed a coordinating piece of cardstock just about a half an inch larger.

Using a glue runner I carefully adhered each square onto the cardstock.
You can use this creation as it is for a tag, bookmark, or whatever...

or you can put a pretty Christmas paper behind your cut images and create a festive card. Grab a cup of hot chocolate or tea, stay warm and have fun!

We Wait

Oh come, oh come, Emmanuel.

Making Festive Paper Using a Few Stamps

While browsing at Michael's a few weeks ago, I came across these lovely snowflake stamps. Especially at this time of year, I cannot resist beautiful snowflakes so I bought them. Feeling the need to try them out immediately, I decided to make a collage on navy cardstock out of the various snowflakes.

First I used a watermark inkpad and white embossing powder to randomly stamp and emboss two snowflake designs. This gave a raised very white crisp image.

Next, I used a silver ink pad to randomly stamp more snowflake images.

Finally, I used a light blue inkpad to randomly stamp even more designs -sometimes overlapping the embossed snowflakes. Just keep stamping until you like what you are creating. The nice thing about clear stamps is you can see where you are putting your image in relation to the other images already stamped.

Now the fun part: deciding where and how to cut your paper to get the best looking overall design.

Voila! Now you can make copies by scanning the cut into your computer. Print out any size you desire. You can print out 8 by 10 copies and use as scrapbook paper in photo albums. You can print large and then cut out smaller designs. I printed out 3 by 5 copies to use as little thankyou cards. I am also using this design to put in the background for my Christmas cards this year. Use any kind of stamp and have fun creating!