What’s that they say…go big or go home? Who is this “they” person anyway? A DT call was put out by my buddy the Bodacious Brie (she runs the Roberts blog) and I responded. I am pleased to report that she picked me! YAY she picked me WOO HOO!!!!! So…be sure to check out the Roberts Arts and Crafts Blog on August 3rd to see my first project! I am so excited to have my FIRST DT be so big. Hopefully I will not disappoint!
Here’s a sneak peek of a project I’m working on to thank the amazing ladies who participated in my Royal Purple Freedom Blog Hop. It took me about 10 minutes to cut 30 postage stamp frames for this project. It took me longer to cut the inside rectangles by hand using my paper trimmer than it did to cut the stamp frames with the eCraft. Man I love that machine. Again…many thanks to my Secret Admirer for thinking so much of me!
When this project is done…it might feature some Verve, Some K Andrew Designs, some Tim Holtz and maybe some twine. I won’t be able to show you the final project for a while though. These cards need to go postal to my team of bloggers…no my team of friends, first. I hope they will enjoy the lil sumthin’ sumthin’ I have for them!
I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I’m pretty sure there’s a Primary Song that says that, but I converted to the LDS church way too late for Primary. Life has been insane lately and I really needed to do something crafty…it’s late though and I didn’t want to drag out all my usual favorites so I decided to finally embellish my Family Proclamation. I had one like it before, but it got water damaged in one of our moves. I have meant to have new mats made for some time now and finally remembered to take the odd sized frame this was originally in to the store. Turns out buying new frames was cheaper that buying new mats. Who knew mat board was so expensive sheesh…certainly not this guy! Anyway….here’s my frame before…more or less (color is different):
The Family Proclamation is beautiful. Particularly this part: ”We warn that individuals who violate covenants of chastity, who abuse spouse or offspring, or who fail to fulfill family responsibilities will one day stand accountable before God. Further, we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.” Ex Knight will one day stand accountable to God, and when he does….well only God will be able to help him, and maybe just maybe it’ll be too late.
I wasn’t going to embellish this frame, I really wasn’t. Ask my Darling Daughter’s they’ll tell you. Being the crafty chick I am though, I couldn’t resist. Here’s the after photo:
Isn’t it pretty? I covered the majority of the mat with pictures of the temple. The pictures were printed out on brochure paper from HP, trimmed, and adhered using my ATG. There are nearly 150 world wide…I’ve only been to about a dozen. To read the rest of the Proclamation to the World on Family, please click here.
Usually by the time my homework is done, I’m wiped and ready to get in prone position wherever I can. Sometimes I don’t even make it to prone and fall asleep in my living room chair. Tonight however, I finished all my homework and found myself still wide awake. Crafting soothes me (once I’m finished with something I love…the process sometimes aggravates me to no end) and so I decided to pull out my K Andrew Designs stamp sets and see what I could come up with. These stamps are divine and so many ideas passed through my brain…don’t worry I’ll get them out and into reality soon enough so you all can see them. I am a stamp snob now remember…Kristal’s stamps just add to that lol. They are just beautiful to work with. Super firm polymer (yay because squishy stamps annoy me), they pick up ink well and then transfer it to your medium (in my case usually paper) quite well also. The set that needed to get inky with me tonight is the new Amazing You set. I used the sentiments “amazing”, “beautiful” and “brilliant” to create this page of one of my all-time favorite people:
Click picture for larger image.
Click picture for larger image.
All the paper used came from my LSS in this huge package for like 15 bucks. It’s one of my favorite solid color card stocks because it has a solid core, it’s nice and thick, AND it’s cheap! I did use lots of other things to so be sure to check out the supplies list below.
Supplies Needed Flat backed pearls Ribbon Lace Paper Martha Stewart Punch About the Page Set of your choice (here I used hearts something…lol) Adhesive (scotch tape and ATG) Bling K Andrews Amazing You stamp set Vintage Photo Distress Ink (Tim Holtz)
Ok…so, the piece of paper that’s punched around the page is a 10.25 inch square then I punched it using my heart whatever punch set. The brown background/photo mat is 8 wide by 7 high. I lined up the sentiments I wanted to use on my EK Success plastic lined ruler, grabbed m HUGE stamp blog, inked them up with Vintage Photo and stamped…voila! When I was finished with stamping this page still looked a little plain to me so I added the flat backed pearls and bling and I think it’s just PERFECT now! Now I have to make a bigger light box so I can photograph my layouts in it!
Let’s deviate from all the crafty goodness I usually share here one last time.
I’ve been really struggling with a few things lately and I knew I needed to get to the temple…it’s been some time since my last trip. I had a long conversation with Lil Sis on Friday after she got off work and as she was pulling out of the driveway I asked her if she would be willing to watch my kids so I could attend the temple on Saturday. She said yes and with that she was off. I was still reflecting on the opinion she had expressed during our conversation and struggling to cope with circumstances such as they were. I got busy doing a bunch of mundane things and just kinda pushed those feelings aside. Saturday comes and I wake up to a knock at the door. After opening it, I discover it was the Fed Ex guy who came a-knocking. Thanks Brie…too bad I didn’t get to see him cuz one of my Fed Ex guys is SUPUH fine! Digressing sorry….
My day gets off to a rough start and my good intentions become vain and I text my sister telling her nevermind I’m not going to the temple maybe next week…that Lil Sis of mine is RELENTLESS sometimes and she INSISTED I go and that she didn’t mind if my children were grapefruits instead of peaches. I hate subjecting my children to people when they are sour, but I certainly get my share of sour with my nephew and my sister swore she didn’t mind. Finally I got in the shower, dressed and headed out the door.
As I’m driving to the temple, I hear the song Virtue from the album Be Not Afraid. Correction…I heard the performance track for said song…it’s one of our favorites and it really got me thinking about virtue. What does that really mean….when I say to you “be virtuous”, what comes to mind? Do you think of being chaste and pure, do you think of honor? Do you think of modesty, of innocence maybe even? I had so many thoughts on my drive to the temple today I can’t possibly make time to share them all…not all of them even need to be shared anyway. This virtue thing stayed with me though….
Virtue is many things…some would argue it’s everything. According to dictionary.com, virtue means “moral excellence; goodness; righteousness.” Hummmm….moral excellence what exactly does THAT mean right? I have some ideas, but we’ll save that for another time.
When I thought about virtuous women, I immediately thought of Ruth. Is it not accurate to say that her virtue saved her people? I ♥ Ruth, she has so many traits worth emulating. Interesting how virtue and integrity go hand in hand don’t you think? As I drove I thought about what I do or don’t do to keep my virtue. Some of those things are quite obvious, but what about how I treat myself? Do I treat myself the same way I treat the other virtuous women I know? Do I respond with as much love and trust and faith? No, I do not.
As interesting as the thoughts and impressions about virtue were, it still didn’t give me the answers I sought. I continued on the course to the temple and arrived with just enough time to catch the 4:30 session. It was a HARD session. For the first time in my entire life I felt a little “put out” by my attendance at the temple…I honestly didn’t WANT to go…my back hurt, my kids were being brats, I was tired, and frustrated that I wasn’t getting any clear impressions or answers to the specific questions I had. I’ve never gone to the temple and not gotten answers.
Guess what though….God ALWAYS answers prayers. I mean always, even if the answer is “NO”, He will always give us an answer. Yesterday my answer came from Proverbs. You see Friday my sister and I were talking about how frustrated I am with my current condition and she suggested maybe I was at such a place so that I could learn to trust God entirely. I however, felt like the answers were somewhere about fear…I started searching for scriptures on fear and yet somehow ended upon trust…there I found Proverbs 29:25. Go read it…right now….I’ll wait.
It tells us that fear of man bringeth a snare…a snare. You know what a snare is right…a trap. Fear of man brings a trap…it was so not what I was expecting but it was EXACTLY what I needed. What if my fear of my ex husband (man) has kept me just as trapped as his abuse did before I left him? This brought me back to virtue…according to webster.com, one of the definitions is “a capacity to act”. I realized I have the capacity to act more trusting toward Him who NEVER disappoints…trusting Him not just in the SUPUH big things or the things so small they are almost trite, but in the everyday and in the every way.
Today, I chose to trust my God unrestrained, despite how scary it was to do so. If you noticed, the “Live Faithfule” link that was password protected has vanished…its content has been moved here, and I’d love to see you over there!