Peace

Welcome to the first Center Stage Spotlight Design Team Blog Hop!

Jessica Fick, the Design Team Coordinator for GinaK Designs has issued a challenge to all of the past and present team CSS team members to make a Christmas card with one of these sketches:



You're going to LOVE what everyone has designed for your viewing pleasure!

First, here are the links for GinaK's Current CSS Team Members:

Deb Felts
Diana S. Queen
Karen Knegten
Melissa Cash
Sharri Seffens
Sue VanDeVusse

and the links for all of the past CSS Design Team members participating:

Brenda Turner,
Carla Suto,
Carolina Buchting,
Charlene Merrick,
Dawn Lusk,
DeeMarie Kelemen,
Geri Utterback ,
Giovanna Smith,
Janice Melton,
JenMarie Taylor,
Jennie Harper,
Joy Hadden,
Kay Simmons,
Linda Payne,
Lori McAree,
Melisa Waldorf,
Pam Imholz,
Selma Stevenson,
Shannon Bracken,
Shelly Wilson,
Sue Walsh,
Tina Gilliland

Some of GinaK's Senior Design Team Members and Illustrators wanted to get in on the fun tonight too:

Asela Hopkins
Carolyn King
Cindy Lawrence
Jessica Fick
Lee Murphy
Lynn Mercurio
Nina Brackett
Melanie Muenchinger

I'm excited and privileged to play along as Nina Brackett's Guest Designer!

All of the gorgeous cards from the entire team will be added to the StampTV gallery throughout the next few days with the tag cssjf1 (which stands for center stage spotlight jessica fick 1)

These sketches are also the sketch challenge for this week, so be sure to check out all the information in the discussion in the Challenge group over on StampTV Thursday morning (Nov 5). We'd love to see your cards with the sketch too!

My card features stamps from the Holiday Cheer Stamp TV kit and Vintage Borders (designed by Nina Brackett), along with Cranberry Tart Pure Luxury Cardstock and Deck the Halls Digital Paper Pack. The beautiful red sheer ribbon is also from the Holiday Cheer Stamp TV kit. I'm in LOVE with everything! I think this will be another of my Christmas cards this year.

Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy the HOP!

Rosie Wishes You Happy Holidays!

Rosie is very anxious for Christmas! She can't even wait until after Thanksgiving to start celebrating!

Hello my friends! Today is Wednesday, so that means it's time for another wonderful challenge at La-La Land Crafts. Sweet Kim Yu (love that girl!) is our hostess this week, and she chose PINK as her challenge. That's a-okay with me! I think you might have noticed that pink is the new red for Christmas this year...ha!

This sweet image is Christmas Dress Rosie. It makes me wish we dressed up for Christmas. I'm lucky to get out of my jammies and into some jeans! I always tell everyone not to take any pictures of me until I at least have something other than a bathrobe on, my hair done and a bit of makeup. But who am I kidding? I'm the only one who takes pictures, so I'm rarely in any of them (which is actually a good thing). Except when Grandpa Jim was around... he was the happy snapper. Poor guy took the worst pictures, but he was so into Christmas, you couldn't help but love him. I sure do miss him.

But I digress. (I do that a lot!)

Rosie is colored with my Copics. The DP is Basic Grey's Eskimo Kisses. The greeting and ribbon are Papertrey Ink. The cardstock is Prism. I'm loving Prism cardstock. I hate to be a traitor to SU, but I really do!

If it's Wednesday, it's also time for another Whimsical Wednesdays: The Diedrich Dare challenge! If you follow my blog, you might recall that last Wednesday I whiffed and used the wrong sketch so (I said) I couldn't post my card. I can tell you now that my Lala Santa card was the one that followed this week's sketch... just turned sideways.

For my card today, I stayed true to the sketch, and I love the way it turned out! Jessica's daughter Madelyn is the awesome designer of this week's sketch. Why not come along and play? But first, feast your eyes on what the other Dare Devils have created for your viewing pleasure:

Cassie Larson

Darla Wilson
Debbie Lee
Heather Schlatter
Jacquie Peifer
Jessica Diedrich (a.k.a.Mom ;)
Kim Ross
Lisa Slusser
Randi Wall
Rebecca Ednie
Sandra MacLean

I'm so glad you stopped by today. I hope you'll come back tomorrow when I'll have a very special post as part of a very special blog hop. Stay tuned! I hope you have a very PINK day!

Merry Christmas in Any Language

One of the BEST parts about blogging for me is meeting the most wonderful people from all over the world. People I would never have otherwise met. That is an incredible gift of technology... and a gift from God.

I am blessed beyond words with the friendships I've made. And when I say "friendships," I mean that in every sense of the word. These are people who I KNOW, who I LOVE, who I care about, and who I look forward to hearing from and sharing with almost daily. And they are so wonderful to me... I'm both humbled and amazed. Of course, they haven't met Julie, but that's another story. (Inside joke with my local friends.)

One very special person I've had the pleasure of getting to know is Nina Brackett. I think I met Nina through her comments and challenge entries on the Stampin' Sisters in Christ Challenge blog. She has become very dear to me. I love her blog. I love her artwork (she designs stamps for Gina K). And I love her godly heart and Christian spirit. She and her husband and their three beautiful girls are missionaries in Croatia. I urge you to visit her blogs and learn more about their ministry, feast your eyes on her beautiful artwork, and get to know Nina, too. You will be blessed!

It was ME, however, who was blessed and delighted when Nina asked me to be part of her guest design team for the November release of her newest stamp set for Gina K. It took me all of three seconds to say Yes, emphatically YES! So you'll be seeing lots of creations from me this month using Nina's beautiful stamp set Vintage Borders, but also a couple of her other stamp sets...Elegant Post and Lord of the Season...from previous releases. We're having a blog hop starting Wednesday night and on into Thursday, so stay tuned for that!

My card today showcases two stamp sets... Vintage Borders appears in the background panel ("Merry Christmas" in many different languages) and Lord of the Season for the main image. It's hard to tell in the picture, but the star and ornaments on the tree sparkle thanks to my atYou Spica pens. The DP is Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses. I just love that little cardinal, by the way. Birds are one of my favorite things!

Thank you so much for stopping by. I hope you have a happy day in any language!

Happy Birthday Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps!

Note: this is my SECOND post for today. Please scroll down for my post for this week's Stampin' Sisters in Christ Challenge.

November 9th is the second birthday of Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps, and we are kicking off the celebration with a blog hop to showcase the debut of the Sunbeams!

I gave you a sneak peek of Caitlyn (with the birthday cake) in my October 25th post. My card today showcases Owen. You can just feel his delight as he rips open his birthday presents. I can totally relate! (The sentiment is from Birthday Buddies.)

My card also follows this week's sketch challenge at The Sweet Stop. I don't make long cards very often, but always find it fun when I do! I made sure this would fit into a standard envelope, so it's 4 x 9. Why don't you come along and play with us this week? You can use any stamps you want!





Be sure to hop around and visit the rest of the Design Team to see more Sunbeam goodness!

Ceal Pritchett
Chris Dickinson
Janette Olen
Korin Sutherland
Leah Cornelius
Lorie Souther
Nancy Brown
Sandy Domelle
Teresa Kline

And then be sure to visit the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps store to see a slide show of more awesome samples of the Sunbeams, and preorder your very own set! Only $20 for all four! Yowsers!

I'm also very proud and happy to announce that effective today, I am officially a Sr Design Team member for Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps. Woo hoo!!!

Thanks so much for hopping by. I hope you have a sunbeamy day!

Know That The Lord is God!

Today is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it! (I can't help myself... it bears repeating!)

Our hostess this week at Stampin' Sisters in Christ is the lovely and talented scrapbooking guru of our Design Team, Pamela Young. Pamela chose the scripture Deuteronomy 31:8 "The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged." (NIV) Her challenge is to create something about when God is "unseen"; i.e., a scrapbook layout that reminds you that God is always with you; a card to encourage a friend and remind them that God is with them; or something to hang on your wall.As it happens, my week of left-brain activity did zap my mojo a bit. It took me quite a while to warm up. I kept dithering on where to start, what to do. Just when I was starting to worry, I saw this post by Claire Brennan... a sneak peek of one of her wonderful new stamp sets debuting on Monday... and the lightbulb turned on! I created an aperture in my card base and in my DP just as Claire did, but instead of mounting my image on the inside bottom panel (creating a window), I ended up adhering mine directly behind the opening. It sort of defeated the purpose, but does create a framed effect that I really like.

The DP is Bella Blue by Stampin Up, and the cardstock is Not Quite Navy. The ribbon and button are from Papertrey Ink, and the rhinestones are Kaisercraft. The beautiful stamps I used are from The Lord is Our Shepherd by Our Daily Bread Designs.

Raise your hand if you've ever read the "Mitford" series of books by Jan Karon. I have. I've read them through three times, and I'm about to start in on them again. I mentioned the Rosamunde Pilcher books I love last week... and I do love them... the stories, the lyric, the setting of those books sing to my heart. But they are secular books. Jan Karon's books are not. They are delightful stories of fiction firmly focused on Christ. They literally transformed my relationship with God. They made me realize how very simple it is to have a day-to-day, one-on-one relationship with Him. What a blessing!

The scripture and challenge this week reminded me of a particular "sermon" in A New Song, one that I've read over and over again. I wish I had time to include the entire passage here, but I'll leave you with a snippet that will hopefully tantalize you enough to read the books yourself. The fictional Father Tim (an Episcopal priest) is speaking to his congregation:

"...it has been my prayer since we came here for you to have a personal, one-on-one, day-to-day relationship with Christ.

"I'm talking about something that goes beyond every Sunday service ever created or ever to be created, something you can depend on for the rest of your life, and then forever. I'm talking about the times you cry out in the storm that prevails against you, times when your heart and your flesh fail and you see no way out and no way in, when any prayer you utter to a God you may view as distant and disinterested seems to vanish into thin air.

"There are legions who believe in the existence of a cold and distant God, and on the occasions when they cry out to Him in utter despair and hear nothing in reply, must get up and stumble on, alone.

"Then there are those who know Him personally, who have found that when they cry out, there He is, as near as their breath -- one-on-one, heart-to-heart, savior, Lord, partner, friend.

"Some have been in church all their lives and have never known this mighty, marvelous, and yet simple personal relationship. Others believe that while such a relationship may be possible, it's not for them - why would God want to bother with them, except from a very great distance? In reality, it is no bother to God at all. He wants this relationship far, far more than you and I want it, and I pray that you will ponder that marvelous truth."

Okay, so it's a bit more than a snippet, but I hope it resonates with you. I hope it blesses you. I hope it opens up new possibilities for you in your relationship with God. He IS there. He will NEVER leave you nor forsake you. You can count on it!

Thank you so much for stopping by to visit today. I hope you have a truly blessed day!