Where I've Been

Happy Tuesday everyone! Sorry for my "disappearance." We have been away on Hilton Head Island celebrating:

Yes, it was hubby's 50th birthday. We surprised him with lots of great things, and my prayer was that he know just how much his family loves him. He knows that but on his 50th, I wanted him to feel it in a special way. Let's just say that my prayer was answered in a mighty way! It was so fun to watch our surprises unfold during the day for him and watch him enjoy. We truly had a wonderful family vacation and birthday celebration.

So, now it's back to the daily routine. Tomorrow I will have another layout to share so I hope you will join me. Blessings,

Loads of Color with Blue Fern Studios

Happy Wednesday! Today I am sharing two layouts on the Blue Fern Studios blog, and I thought I would share them here with you too. Now the fun thing about these layouts is that they are 8 1/2 x 11. Oh my, I have not scrapped that size in probably 10 years or more! One of my daughter's is a nanny for a precious 11 month old. Well, her mother asked me to make a layout for her 1st birthday, and we have decided to surprise her with a complete album! So, my daughter has been snapping photos, and I am scrapping away. These are the first two layouts for the 8 1/2 x 11 album. Let's look at them in detail.

"You Today"

This precious little one zones out when she is ready for a nap. So, here you see that adorable expression on her face as my daughter prepares her bottle. I chose to use the Blue Fern Studios Brigitte Butterfly Set. I put down a light layer of gesso on the chipboard then painted it with Adirondack pool paint dabber. While the paint was still wet, I spritzed it with Heidi Swapp mint green color shine. In person it has a bit of a marbled look but I wasn't able to capture it on camera.

Papers: Basic Grey Sultry and Kneehighs, Kaisercraft Basecoat Weathered 
BFS Chipboard: Brigitte Butterfly Set (painted with gesso, Adirondack pool paint dabber, and Heidi Swapp mint green color shine) 
Embellishments: Cheery Lynn Designs French Pastry Tiny Doily die; Elle's Studio Lil' Snippets Today; Petaloo daisy; Memory Box white pearls; Zva Creative pearl flourishes; Maya Road kraft dot envelope; Freckled Fawn wood word bubble; Prima Corine, Overture C, and Frost Frappe VI flowers; Prima flourish stencil with Golden extra heavy gel medium; misc. leaves; sewing machine

"Cute Stuff"
My next layout is a photo the family wanted me to scrap. They think this is the only layout they are getting. Oooh, I can't wait for them to have this album. Anyway, the baby's room is done in all of these colors. They love the bright colors. So, I went bright with this layout. It was a bit hard to photograph because of the white background. The close-up photos show the colors best.

The Blue Fern Studios chipboard I used was the Good Vibes set for the title "Cute Stuff," and the Organic Vine Corner which I cut in half to use on both sides of the picture.

For the Organic Vine Corner, I painted it with gesso and then spritzed with SEI Tumble Dye desert purple mist. I was able to get it darker in some areas so it gave it a very fun look.

The title I painted with gesso and Adirondack raspberry paint dabber. I needed it to be bright.

Papers: Paper Trey Ink white cs 
BFS Chipboard: Good Vibes (title painted with gesso and Adirondack raspberry paint dabber), Organic Vine Corner (colored w/gesso & SEI Tumble Dye desert purple mist) 
Embellishments: Cheery Lynn Designs French Pastry Tiny Doily die; Elle's Studio Lil' Snippets Today; Pink Paislee photo tab; Art Anthology mists--waimea bay, juicy, patience, timeless; Prima zipper; May Arts twine; Manor House Creations Jubilee Princess Pink flower; Prima Soubrette pink, Chantelle Medallion, Delightful Day flowers; flowers and leaves by Wild Orchid Crafts; Crafter's Workshop mini chevron template with Golden extra heavy gel medium; sewing machine

Now remember, you still have time to enter the Blue Fern Studios April Sketch Challenge. I hope you will join in as there is a wonderful Blue Fern Studios prize pack up for grabs! :) Click here for more details. Thanks for stopping by. Blessings,

Tuesday's {Tip} Leave the Thread

Today I wanted to show you something that I have started doing on my layouts. I love messy, and this tip just adds to the theme of "messy" on my layouts.

Most of you know that I sew on 99% of my layouts. I love what sewing adds to a design. Well, cutting those threads once you are done can be a pain. So, I have started to leave them! I don't know if you have noticed it or not but I have. On a few occasions I still cut them when it's appropriate but for the most part, I am leaving them now. Here is a peek at a layout I will post tomorrow:

See all of those fun threads? Click on the photo to enlarge it. Oooh, I just love it. So, next time you sew on a layout, leave the threads; don't cut them! Enjoy, and see you tomorrow with two new layouts!! Blessings,

{HSCRC13} Hymn #7, Trust Him When Thy Wants are Many

Hymn Challenge #7: Trust Him When Thy Wants are Many
Words Written by: Lucy Ann Bennett
b. January 8, 1850; d. March 10, 1927

Lucy Ann Bennett was born in Green Farm, Fal­field, Glou­ces­ter­shire, Eng­land. I could not find much about her other than in 1881, she was liv­ing with her bro­ther in Hol­den­hurst, Hamp­shire, Eng­land. She did write a few hymns—one that you may be familiar with is "O Teach Me What It Meaneth."

Before we begin, you might want to read the lyrics to this beautiful hymn by clicking here. After reading it, I am sure you realize the words are incredible and so perfectly stated. We are each walking different paths but all of us need to trust Him in everything. I like to summarize this hymn like this:

Trust Him—

• When you have many needs.
• When your friends are few.
• When you are tempted.
• When you are burdened.
• For His sufficient grace.
• For the answers.
• To enable you when you serve.
• For the blessings.
• When you doubt or you have little strength.
• With all of your cares and concerns.

And what does this hymn say about why we should trust Him? Because—

• He is ever faithful.
• His will is best.
• He is where we find our rest.

Don't you just love that? In all things we can and are to trust Him—He is faithful, His will is better than what we could ever want for ourselves, and we can truly rest in any circumstance when we trust Him. Have you experienced that rest as you trust Him in a situation? I know right now as we deal with so many unknowns with our daughter, it gives us great peace knowing we can fully trust Him. He has the plan, He knows what's best, and He loves our daughter more than we do!

Our precious pastor wrote this to my daughter the other day—"There are just so many times in life we find ourselves facing the fact that it is not in God's time to let us in on the big picture of His plan for us." So, He has chosen not to let us in on the big picture but we are to trust and wait and see what He has ahead. We are not to get discouraged or wallow in our sorrows or have a pity party, we are to fully trust Him!

So if you too are facing something that seems to have more "whys" than answers, trust Him! He does have the big picture, and we don't. And because of His love for you, you know whatever His plan is, it will be amazing. Will you put your complete trust in Him today?

Psalm 25:5 "Guide me in Your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in You all day long."

Psalm 62:8 "Trust in Him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to Him, for God is our refuge."

Proverbs 19:21 "Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails."

I had a lot of trouble finding this hymn for you to listen other than the link noted above where you read the verses. I also could not find any sheet music. I am wondering if this will be a new hymn for a lot of you. Next study I guess I will have to find a more familiar hymn. :)

For my 6x6 page today, I used the Psalm 25:5 verse above. I also used the Blue Fern Studios Organic Vine chipboard. I painted it with gesso and then spritzed it with SEI Tumble Dye desert purple mist. I cut the chipboard into 3 pieces and used in various places on my layout. My layout really isn't the look I was going for, and my daughter says it makes her think of Ariel from Disney's Little Mermaid but it is what it is. LOL!

Papers: Memory Box Lavender, Crate Paper DIY Shop, Tim Holtz Kraft-Core Nostalgic Collection
Embellishments: Blue Fern Studios organic vine chipboard (colored w/gesso & SEI Tumble Dye desert purple mist); Art Anthology mists—waimea bay, juicy, patience; Melissa Frances resin frame; May Arts twine; Prima Corine, Lucerne Fairy Belle, and Delightful Day flowers; flowers and leaves by Wild Orchid Crafts; Crafter's Workshop mini chevron template; Golden extra heavy gel medium; sewing machine

Remember to use Keyword HSCRC13 when posting your creations in any online galleries. Also, please leave a link to your creation here using Inlinkz! To see all of the information regarding this challenge and the previous studies, please see this post here. Have a blessed week ahead!

Tuesday's {Tip} Cowboy Studio

Okay, so how many of you are wondering what a Cowboy Studio is? LOL! Well, you are in the right spot to find out. A Cowboy Studio is a pop up photo box. If you have the pop up window shades for your car, then you will know just how to fold up this photo studio. That is actually the beauty of it because it folds flat and is so easy to store! It's also very inexpensive. The 12" studio is $15 on amazon.com. Here is a picture of it:

I have both a 12" studio and the 24" studio to use if I need to photograph something larger. The 12" studio I actually keep opened up all of the time near a window in my new studio. They also come with several backdrops (white, blue, red, and black). I only use the white but it's nice to have the option to use other colors if I want them. I use this little photo studio to photograph all of my projects.

So, instead of building some sort of photo box that takes up a lot of room, why not ask for this little beauty for a birthday present, anniversary present, etc. And remember, you don't have to keep it opened up and out all of the time because they fold flat. So very wonderful and definitely worth saving a few pennies for! Have a blessed Tuesday!

Organizational {Friday} Cards for PL, Simple Stories, Etc.

For those of you doing some sort of Project Life or Simple Stories albums, you know finding what you have or want to use can be difficult. I got really frustrated earlier this week when my new Project Life Blush kit arrived. As I went through the kit and the other cards I already have, I knew I would never be able to find the date cards, the phrase cards, etc., easily. What should I do? Should I keep them separated by set, divide them out—I wasn't sure what to do.

So, as I sat in my studio, looked at all of the cards, and thought about it, I came up with a solution I love plus it looks pretty too! So today, that's what I want to share with you!

First, if you have any Project Life trays, don't throw them away. They are GREAT for storing your cards. The tray even fits in the IKEA Raskog cart perfectly! I put the plastic tray from my new PL Blush kit down into the top shelf of my Raskog cart. The tray makes it very easy to stand the cards up and flip through quickly to find what you are looking for. Click here to see my Raskog cart filled with Project Life goodies. :)

To organize them, I first needed to make some divider tabs. Library cards and washi tape are my favorite friends, so I chose to use those. I trimmed the library cards down just a bit as they were a tad tall. Once I trimmed them down, I rounded the corners with my Zutter Round-it-All. The pink Round-it-All makes rounded corners nearly identical to the size of the PL cards. Perfect! Then I decided on washi tape colors to use for each line and manufacturer.

I decided to keep the Project Life cards in their original sets; however, I separated out the cards a bit to find things more easily. For instance:

• Amber Journaling
• Amber Titles
• Bazzill Cardstock
• Blush Daily Cards
• Blush Journaling
• Blush Phrases
• Blush Titles
• Cherry Journaling
• Clementine Journaling
• Cobalt Daily Cards
• Cobalt Journaling
• Cobalt Phrases
• Cobalt Titles
• Free Printables
• Grid Journaling Cards
• Jade Journaling
• Simple Stories
• Webster's Pages

You will also note that I have a few manufacturer tabs too—Simple Stories, Bazzill, Webster's Pages, Free Printables, etc. I will show you what I did with those in a moment.

Now, if you notice from the list above, I only have daily/date cards in the Blush and Cobalt sets. I would never have remembered that. I probably would continue to search through each set wondering if there were date cards for a specific set. Now I know I only have them for those two sets, and I know right where to find them now with my tabs! I love it! The reason I don't have date cards for some sets is because I have been able to swap some sets with people, and I don't have the full sets.

Each Project Life line and each manufacturer were assigned a washi tape color. I tried to keep them in line with the colors of the cards to help me remember but they are labeled too so it is very easy for me to find things. And of course, everything is in alphabetical order too. Here are a few photos of the organized tabs and cards:

Manufacturer Tabs

Now my next dilemma was what should I do with the 3x4 cards from Simple Stories, Webster's Pages, free printables, etc. I wanted them all together in my cart but wasn't sure how to handle them. Again after much contemplation, here is what I decided to do. 

I don't have enough cards to warrant separate tabs for separate lines from these manufacturers. So, I just created one tab for each manufacturer. Then when cutting the cards apart (most of these come on 12x12 sheets), I kept the tab across the bottom of the page that says which line the cards are from. I then trimmed that down and used my removable adhesive to attach it to the first card in that line of cards. Oh gosh, is this making sense? Here is a photo of my Webster's Pages cards:

Now you can see, I don't have very many Webster's Pages cards but I have them separated by line within the divider tab by making these little tabs out of the bottom of the 12x12 paper. In the photo below you can see my Webster's Pages divider tab (light green in front of the library cards). Now, see the little "sub tabs" sticking up? This works really well for me. I have done the same with the Simple Stories lines too.

I did not round the corners of these cards. I will decide if I am going to do that when I use them. It will depend on the page layout. :)

4x6 Cards

The larger cards (4x6) are kept in the larger part of the tray with the same matching tabs as the 3x4 cards in the front. You can see them here:

The Back

And just look at the back of the cards? 

Look at the color just sitting in my room! Color makes me happy, and I love this little cart. I can roll it around anywhere in my room. I will be sharing what I keep on the other shelves in a later post.

And yes, a studio tour is coming soon. It is taking me so much longer than I wanted it to take but I continue to reorganize. It has never really been done yet because I am still not "happy" with it all yet. Plus with my daughter's issues and many doctor visits, things are slowed down a bit. Please be patient, and I hope I can get it up soon!

Update: The Studio Tour is done! :) Click here to see it!

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope this helps you as you organize those cards! Feel free to ask questions in the comment section, and I will respond there. Blessings,

Tuesday's {Tip} Paint a Wood Banner

If you saw my new prayer journal I posted yesterday, you may have noticed the wood banner. If you missed yesterday's post, click here. Anyway, the wood banner is made by My Mind's Eye. You can see the package of the banners here:

I knew I wanted to use a wood banner but none of them had the word "time" on it. So, I took some black paint, painted over the word "celebrate," and then put a cardstock sticker on top that had the word I was looking for. I really like how it turned out and the effect of the messy paint behind the word sticker.

So, next time you have an embellishment that doesn't have the right word, just paint over it and make it into what you need. 

And don't forget to join in our our sketch challenge. I have heard some people say the sketch is not their style. Sketches can be made into any style you want! I hope you will join us because I would LOVE to see one of you win that Blue Fern Studios chipboard package! Click here to see more info! Have fun, and thanks for stopping by!

It's Sketch Time with Blue Fern Studios

We are starting something new at Blue Fern Studios (chipboard manufacturer). We will be having a sketch challenge each month with a prize to go along with it! Today I will share my the sketch and my creation. For complete details and to enter the sketch challenge, please see the Blue Fern Studios blog post here! I hope you will join us and play along! Now for the sketch.

April's Sketch

Isn't it stunning? This month's sketch uses the Blue Fern Studios Floral Clock chipboard. You can see purchase and see complete details on the Floral Clock by clicking here. 

My Creation

As soon as I saw the sketch, I knew I had to put it to good use right away! I decided to make a new prayer journal.

Papers: Blue Fern Studios packaging 

Stamp Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink tumbled glass 

Blue Fern Studios chipboard: Spiritually Speaking, Floral Clock (both painted with gesso) 

Embellishments: Melissa Frances resin cross, Prima Corine and solitare jewel tone flowers, Prima Sunrise Sunset stickers, Manor House Creations log cabin flower, leaves from Wild Orchid Crafts, hand-dyed Hug Snug, My Mind's Eye Happy Days wood banner, sewing machine 

I used the Floral Clock chipboard and the Spiritually Speaking set. I also recycled the Blue Fern packaging and used it for the patterned paper on my journal. I didn't do anything special with the chipboard for this book. I just painted each piece in white gesso since I wanted them to be white on my book.

I hope you enjoyed my journal. Now it's your turn to play. Jump on over to the Blue Fern Studios blog, see the prize package, and how to join in the fun! You have until April 30th to get your creation entered! :) The other designers creations are also in the post so you will see lots of inspiration! Thanks for joining me today. Blessings,