My Mentor Ruth

Last week Ruth and her family and friends celebrated her 91st birthday!

I'm so thankful for the mentoring role she has played in my life. She never fails to witness to Jesus' love and care.

Ruth hostesses our small group Bible study, and each one of us women enjoy our time with her. She's an avid reader, and always sends a great book home with me from her library. I love that her favorite book is her well-worn Bible. She amazes us all with her sharp memory and recall of Scripture verses and facts. But most of all, she loves to tell us about her large family, and always wants to hear about each of ours too.

The Apple of God's Eye

One apple basket card for a friend...
and a second card for another ...

and the inside of each:

Since stamp kissing was so much fun the first time, I came back for MORE! The apples in the baskets are kissed with a mini-heart.

A favorite song is "Psalm 17" --

the source of my sentiment inside the card.

Give ear to me

And hear my prayer

Show me the wonder of Your great love.

You who can save by Your righteous hand

Those who take refuge in You from their foes

Keep me as the apple of Your eye

Hide me in the shadow of Your wings

Give ear to me and hear my prayer

Show me the wonder of Your great love

You who can save by Your righteous hand

Those who take refuge in You from their foes

Keep me as the apple of Your eye

Hide me in the shadow of Your wings

Copyright 2003 Words and Music by Brad J. Kittelsen

King David wrote in Psalm 17:8:

"Keep me as the apple of Your eye; hide me in the shadow of Your wings."

(Other references to "apple of Your eye"

include Deuteronomy 32:10 and Zechariah 2:8.)

"Apple of His eye" literally means "little man of his eye," a reflection of you and me in God's own pupil when He looks at us as His dear children.

(The Hebrew word transliterated is ee-shone, and meant “the little man of the eye”, or “the middle of the night” or the “blackness” of the eye.)

The reference here is the pupil of the eye. It's the part of the eye which reflects what you are looking at.

We are in God's eye because He is always looking at us!

Out of His great love, God cares for us and protects us

because we are so important to Him!

Remember that He gave us His best Valentine

when He gave us Jesus. That's how much He loves us.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I used CTMH products:
Red and Colonial White cardstock
Hemp (braided)
Ink pads: Olive, Hollyhock, and Holiday Red
Marker: Topiary
Stamps: Playful Lowercase, September Word Puzzle, Be Mine

Stamp Kissing H2H Challenge

This week the Heart 2 Heart challenge has been "stamp kissing" -- a fun technique doing exactly what the name suggests! Muuuu-wah! Put those inky stamps to-getha for a smooch!

(I love the CTMH awesome, wonderful MyAcrylix stamps from Close To My Heart so much I would gladly kiss them! ... so much more fun than kissing a frog!)

To learn more about how to "kiss" with stamps, watch Tresa Black's great tutorial here. Then try it! It's fun!

After stamping the kissed stamps together, I stamped the image on cs and then cut each out. Some have foam squares behind them to add dimension.

Here's the inside sentiment:



I like to stamp the envelope too! The recipient might think "she really planned this duo!"

I used CTMH products:

New Mayberry Paper Packet Level 2

Ink Pads:

Honey, Olive, Smoothie

Stamp Sets:

Be Mine D1116 (little heart)

Heartfelt B1297 (polka dot heart)

Dream Big W329 (tulip)

Delight in Everything D1204 (flowers)

September Word Puzzle D1310 (sentiments)

Hollyhock Ribbon

Crocheted Ribbon

Olive mini-brads

Thanks for visiting my Heart 2 Heart entry and for leaving your comment! Now hop on to see the other great stamp kissing posts too, and then take the challenge!

Baby Steps

Sophia papers are one of my favorite designs from Close To My Heart so far, and they really showcase my photos from the August day when Beatrice wanted to walk and walk and walk in the yard!

The new papers, along with the new Pear and Smoothie ink colors and all the coordinating embellishments are so simple, fast, and fun to use.

I used the white side of the new Kraft borders to continue the "dots" theme on these pages.

If you haven't tried the Irresistible Eclectic Die Cut letters yet, they are so fun! Ink them and watch the patterns pop!

The square scalloped A-Door-Able frame fit into the upper right corner to hide a small photo of Beatrice sitting and feeling the texture of the grass.

I punched three large Marvy scalloped flowers and layered them with Liquid Glass, and then added a button and mini-brads for the center.

Thanks for visiting and leaving your comment!

Only 31 days until Spring! Whoo-hoo!

For now, the Sophia colors take me to a wonderful spring place!

I used all CTMH products:

Sophia Papers Level 2

Kraft Borders (white side)

Irresistible Eclectic Die Cut Alphabet

Stamp Set: Classmate Alphabet

Pear, Colonial White, and Blush Ink Pads

Colonial White Waxy Flax

Spring Buttons & Hollyhock

Spring Sheer Ribbon

My Creations A-Door-Ables

Corner Rounder for scallops

White mini-brads

Liquid Glass

All Stacked Up--Sweetheart

See Jane.
See Jane papercraft.
See Jane LOVE the new CTMH products!

I used:

"All Stacked Up" card recipe from Wishes by Jeanette Lynton, page 59
CTMH NEW Kraft paper & Kraft border
NEW Sweetheart paper packet Level 2 (the guy-sides in plaid & black/gray dots)

Stamp Sets: NEW Polka Dot Alphabet; The Gift of Love; Heartfelt

NEW Dimensional Elements Hearts
NEW Smoothie Ink pad and Marker

Baby Pink Embossing Powder
Versamark Ink pad
Heat embossing tool

Foam squares

Hemp

When the baby pink embossed heart looked too faded, I stamped over the embossing a few times with the plaid heart from Heartfelt in Smoothie to give it a little darker color.

Inside, I layered the Kraft border on the smoothie plaid paper strip.

Sentiment inside:

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength;

Loving someone deeply gives you courage.

Glad you stopped by to look at my paper art!

Welcome, Baby Girl!

This CAS card is for friends who welcomed their first baby--beautiful little Lillian--into the world on Monday evening.

I used Close To My Heart's "Miracle" stamp set, Blush ink pad, and tiny pink safety pins. I placed the pins so that they would form a pink heart shape.

Inside (and on the envelope) I stamped the butterfly from "Miracle" and wrote my own congratulations note.

Gingham ribbon is from my "other" stash.

Thanks for visiting and leaving your comment!

Mayberry -- Praying for You

Featuring ... a few of the new Mayberry paper colors and patterns in the Level 2 packet!

We have so many friends and neighbors who are ill or recovering from surgeries. Making cards for them is just one way I can bring them a little good cheer. I'm always thrilled when I find something in my snail mail other than a bill, aren't you?!

I used Close To My Heart items:

NEW Mayberry Paper Packet Level 2
Crocheted ribbon
Olive mini brads
NEW Smoothie & Honey ink pads
Olive ink pad
Corner rounder
Distressing block

Aspirations flower stamp

Other items: Verve Scripture verse and inside sentiment
Large scallop punch from Marvy

Thanks for visiting my blog & stop by again soon!

Studio J & A Perfect 10 in February

Score a PERFECT 10 throughout February!

IF YOU’RE A STUDIO J® member, you can take advantage of this great opportunity to catch up and/or fill up your memory books!

For every 9 custom-printed Studio J layouts you buy, you’ll receive the 10th layout free! To receive the discount, just add 10 or more layouts to your cart. You’ll see a discount reflected in your order total. And you can take advantage of this promotion even more by ordering in multiples of 10. Buy 9, get 1 free. Buy 18, get 2 free. Buy 27, get 3 free. And so on!

If you’re not a member of Studio J yet, now is a great time to join! Email or call me for more information.

Or click here to start your digital scrapbooking with Studio J! You can try it for free! See how simple, fast, and fun Studio J can be!

New Sweetheart Papers -- Thinking of You

I'm having so much fun playing with the new Spring/Summer Close To My Heart papers! It was fun to pleat the paper for the "ribbon" look on this card. These paper colors are lush-ous!!! Now I'm going to have to make some Valentines, but this card needs to get in the mail for a friend who is rehabbing after her knee surgery. (We haven't had mail delivery in three days because of ice/snow! Maybe tomorrow?)

I'll write a note inside, but wanted to second- and third-generation stamp the buttons for a little whimsy to go with the pretty hearts and flowers since she's a seamstress.

I used:

Card recipe from Wishes by Jeanette Lynton--"Down the Middle" (p 35; I adapted it for my 5 x 6.5 inch card base)

Sweetheart Paper Packet

Inks: Baby Pink, Tulip, Amethyst

Stamps: Just Because, Buttoned Together

Colonial White Waxy Flax
Pink, White, and Amethyst buttons

I'm glad you visited my blog! Come again soon!

Yum!

Inspired by a one-page layout in the new Spring-Summer Idea Book from Close To My Heart (p. 48), I put this layout together while watching the snow fall today. I included hidden journaling on cardstock that slides behind the photo.

Last August Ella enjoyed many slurpy pieces of watermelon on our deck. She ate and ate, until she nearly turned into a little watermelon.
I used all CTMH products:
New Sophia and Wings paper packets
New Kraft paper and Kraft border
New Irresistibles Eclectic Die-Cut Letters
New Pear Ink
Hollyhock, Sweet Leaf, Clover Meadow, and Black Ink
Hollyhock Marker
Colonial White ribbon (sweet leaf)
Stamp Sets: Summer Sweetness, Today's Date
Foam squares
Gold staples
Liquid Glass

Thanks for looking!