Jars of Clay/Third Day Concert

I just got home from a fantastic concert. Jars of Clay and Third Day are on a Christmas tour. Aptly titled, "Christmas Offerings". These are two of my favorite Christian groups. They both have such talent and produce wonderful music. I have to say though, of the two, Third Day is probably my favorite. If for no other reason than for the voice of Mac Powell. This man has been greatly blessed. I don't know how to describe it. If you've never heard the, all I can say is, go to their website and take a listen. http://www.thirdday.com/tdmusic.htm Scroll down a bit and click on "Launch Radio".

Not to leave out Jars of Clay... http://www.jarsofclay.com/home

Another thing I like about these guys is that they are all about giving back. Jars of Clay promotes several charities, one focus is called "Blood: Water Mission". This organization is trying to build wells in Africa to provide clean water for the people. Go here to read about it. Our tickets for the concert were only $12 and $1 of that goes to Blood: Water Mission.

I guess that really impresses me because my little sister is in Africa right now with her husband on a two year mission. They've been gone since October and already I miss them so much. They're still in training and are anxious to get started. You can visit their blog if you're interested in their progress.

Well, thanks for reading.

Sunday Scrappin' #4

A favorite tip or technique: I wouldn't call this a favorite, but I'm using eyelets on the girl's scrapbooks. I picked up a set of three eyelet setters. They're kind of like an Xacto knife. It has a spring in the middle of it. One end is the punch and the other is the setter. You position the punch where you want the hole. Hold the bottom still and pull up from the top. Let go and it punches your hole. Set your eyelet in the whole. Make sure you are working on a firm surface (not a folding table). Turn the punch over and place the setter in the eyelet. Hold down the bottom, pull up the top, let go and Viola! I'm still getting the hang of it, but they come in handy for vellum paper.

TaDas: I decided to do some cover switching. I took my original book (the very first one I made for myself to figure out how to construct them) and gutted it. I'm going to put those pages in a handmade cover later on. That one is for me and I wanted the girls to have the same covers if possible. So the one that was a different size was replaced by the gutted cover. Then I switched the first handmade cover with another girl's cover. The one who is now getting the handmade is a teenager and I think probably won't mind that it's different from the other girls' covers. So I got all the switching done and cut more background paper for the new cover. I have a total of 8 books to do, each book has 14 panels, including the inside front and back covers. So far I have the background paper attached on all the panels in four of the books. And in those four books I have the first two panels done. I also have pictures picked out for those four books. And I have ordered extra copies of a lot of the pictures. They should be coming in sometime this week. There were 144 total so I had them shipped. I didn't want to do that to the one-hour people. Plus it was cheaper to have them shipped. The ones I don't use will go in another scrapbook for the lady who has been a major part of the God's Girls this year. And still more will go into a photo album for the church. But I digress...

ToDos: This week is yet another busy one (imagine that), but I hope to at least bring the last four books up to the same point as the first four. After that I would like to get 3-4 more panels in each book done. We'll see how it goes.

No cards done, but that's okay. I've got back up plans for the Christmas gifts.

I've taken pictures of an assembled book. I need to finish the roll out and then I can get them developed. Once I do, I'll post pictures so my rambling descriptions will hopefully make sense.

Good luck this week with your ToDos!

Thanksgiving Blessings

We had a pretty good Thanksgiving. We had dinner with family from my mom's side. About 40 people is my guess. We had it at our church which works out very well. We did the same thing last year and the power went out for about two hours that morning. This year it went out the night before. Anyway, every family brought several dishes so I think we could have fed about 40 more people, if not more.

I think everyone enjoyed themselves. We laughed a lot and talked about old times, drooled over all the desserts. I can't tell you the array of pies and cakes we had. And out of all of it... only 1 pumpkin pie. We did have a pumpkin cheesecake which Jenni made. Yummm-E!

One of the traditions my mom's cousins has is very interesting to me for some reason. They bring the sale papers and pore over them before dinner. They map out a game plan and decide where they're going, when and in what order. I think it's pretty smart if you're brave enough to face the madness. My friend Sandra, went with a friend at 2:30 in the morning. It's not for me, but to each his own.

I think the hightlight of my immediate family's day was getting to talk to my baby sister, Joe Joe. I call her my baby sister because she's 10 years younger than me. She's actually a beautiful young woman, married to a wonderful man. They are in Zambia, Africa right now. They're in the middle of missionary training, about to take on Swahili. They'll be in Morogoro, Tanzania when they've finished. They'll be there for about 2 years. They left for Africa in October and for the past 25-30 days have been unable to correspond because of their location. So getting to talk to them on Thanksgiving was a great blessing. It was so good to hear her voice and know that she's safe. Michael was having a great time in the background playing volleyball and admiring the 4" beetle given to him by some of the children. I know they're anxious to settle in to their new home and begin their ministry. Right now they're having some technical difficulty-securing a car, meeting with trainers, that sort of thing. I think they're having a wonderful time and are really seeing the world in a different way. If you're interested, you can keep up with them on their blog at goodbyeharan.blogspot.com.

I hope your Thanksgiving was as special as mine.

Sunday Scrappin' #3

Okay, I missed Sunday #3 and here it is almost #4. I've been sick the past week and haven't touched a computer until last night. And even then it was for just a few minutes to check email.

So, on to my TaDa's...
I finished Savannah's book, all except the journaling and I picked out all the color schemes for the rest of the books. I realized I needed to do two more books but I don't have any more of the princess albums, so I'm improvising. I had picked up a couple little kits for the ideas and embellishments. The book itself is about 12 pages, approx. 6.5" square, stitched in the middle. I took off the birthday theme cover and replaced it with one of my own. It's not the same size or shape as the others, but it has the same number of pages and I'll treat it the same. As for the other extra book, I decided to try my hand at making my own. Using the dimensions of the Princess album, I took a piece of cardboard and scored it to fold into book form. Then I covered it with a dark green laid cover stock. I'll add pages just as I did the original books.
I was really impressed with myself for getting this much done, before Friday no less!

My To Do's....
To keep on keeping on. I'll give you a "so far this week". Since I was feeling better last night, I stayed up working on the books. I spent an hour or so this morning as well. So, I've got all but one book with pages glued in and ribbons attached. Each girl's name I had already cut out from my friends Scizzex fun alphabet and is attached on the inside front cover. I've got paper cut to the page size for each girl's theme/color/pattern. I'll probably try to use Savannah's book as a template and do each girl's book similar to it, just to be able to get as much done as possible in the little time I have. I'll finish up the last girl tonight and hopefully start laying out the actual pages. I'm meeting some friends on Saturday for a Scrapping/Stamping/Cardmaking day so hopefully I'll be able to get a lot done.

Bonus Question:
I missed the question for #2 so I'll answer it first. My favorite at the moment is scrapping. I have more tools/supplies for it.
This week's question: Yes, the books I'm working on right now for my girl's at church. I had planned to make a card set for a family gift swap, but I'm not sure about that now. Maybe I'll be able to do something on that on Saturday.

Thanks for reading and I apologize if I didn't make too much sense. (Let's blame it on the medication.)
Happy Scrapping!

Sunday Scrappin'

I thought I would try this Sunday Scrappin' out. You share what you've accomplished the past week (Ta-Da's) and what your plans/goals are for the next week (To-Do's). I thought since I have a big project I'm working on, this might keep me on track. I'll explain my project and then get to the Ta-Da's and To-Do's.

I've organized a group of girls at our church called "God's Girls". Once a month we get them together to introduce them to new things, to show them life skills they might not otherwise learn. These girls come from homes where the parents do not attend church, one or more of the parents are incarcerated, drinks or are involved in drugs. Not all of them mind you, but an uncomfortable majority. I've also noticed that most of the girls have low self-esteem and compensate in many ways. My prayer is with God's Girls the ladies of the church can help to break the cycle these girls are caught in. So far this year they've learned all manner of cooking from chocolate chip cookies to Japanese cuisine. They've learned about gardening, hair care, nail care and this month will learn some sewing skills. Along the way, I've taken pictures of each of the girls, in groups and so on. So for Christmas (we're going to make Gingerbread houses), I've decided to make a small scrapbook for each of them. They may not appreciate it now, but I hope that in years to come they can look back on this time and remember that there were people who cared about them. I have eight girls from ages 10-15. I've gotten started on ONE. At this rate, they'll get their scrapbooks next Christmas.

I made one scrapbook for myself to determine what I was going to do. Here is what I did:
I found 5 x 7 photo albums with crowns and gowns and "princess" all over the outside with a pink spine. I ripped out the photo sleeves to replace with my own pages. I've taken 22" x 7" sheets of paper and trimmed them down to 18.5" x 6.25". Next, I scored and folded the width down to 4.25" panels. I fixed the back panel to the inside back of the photo album. Then I decorated the inside front of the album and scrapped each panel with pictures of the girls.

So now I know the HOW to create these scrapbooks, now I just need to get the rest of them done. I've started on Savannah's because she's been the least amount of times and had the least pictures. I've got 6 panels left to scrap and then I'll do some journaling, adding scripture verses and encouragement from ladies' of the church.

This past week I scrapped two panels. The first I laid down the basic pattern I've picked out for Savannah's theme. Then I created a "door" at the top of the panel to hide a picture behind. I closed it with a blue daisy glued to one side of the door and velcroed to the other so it can be opened. Then I added a bit of encouragment near the bottom of the panel below the door. I put a square box with the text on vellum and attached it with eyelets. The second panel doesn't have a picture but I think is cute. I stamped a large flower with stem and leaves in gold ink. Then I outlined the petals, sewing around the edges with blue embroidery thread. I'll add some scripture or words of encouragement to finish that panel out.

This coming week is another busy one for me. Who isn't busy I wonder. But I'd like to finish Savannah's book. Realistically, I may only be able to get a few more panels done. I'm going to have to figure out how to get more done at a time or I'm not going to get them all done in time. Maybe I'll figure out something this week. Pray for me.

I also made an anniversary card for a couple at church. I used an ivory base and added an orange striped background to the front. Then I layered a piece of vellum on top attached with tiny brass brads. I stamped black leaf silohettes on three light orange square pieces layered on orange striped squares to glue in a horizonatal row on the front. On the inside I stamped "Congratulations" in a pretty script with some curly embellishments on either side. Simple maybe, but for me being new at card-making, I thought it turned out pretty good.

I wish I had pictures to post. Unfortunately, I don't have a digital camera. I do know people with them, so maybe I can borrow one. If not, I'll take regular pictures as I work and post them when I can get them developed.

Finally, Here It Is!

And now, what you've all been waiting for...










Keep in mind, this is the first time I've ever decorated a cake. (See my earlier post.) The cake was for the church's 5th anniversary. The dove is from the church logo. I don't know if I'll decorate any more cakes. It'd have to be a real special occasion. I was actually coerced into doing this one. Anyway, there it is and now I know how to post pictures. If only I can figure out how to customize my layout I'll be doing good. Thanks for reading!

Bloggy Giveaways

As I am new to this blogging thing, I don't have anything to give away. Plus I have to get my blog out there so people will come by. As I get better at this, I will try to participate in these giveaways. In the meantime, I'll be gathering up some goodies to be prepared when the time comes.

Thanks to anyone who stopped by whose blog I commented on. I look forward to visiting you in the future.

For anyone who happens across my blog from elsewhere, there is a huge gathering of giveaways and you can find a master list at Rocks In My Dryer .