Posted on Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Planning And Collecting Memories In One Place + DIY Planner Clips

One of my goals this year is to be a better planner and organizer. Honestly, this area has been a challenge for me who “just go with it” kindda person. I am super excited when I found out about the great, fun and creative way to start a new year with planning, doodling and doing pocket scrapbook in just one album. This is new to me (and maybe some of you). I am doing that this year with Close To My Heart – Everyday Life™ Planner collection.

I use the exclusive Picture My Life™ Live Your Day scrapbooking program and the Everyday Life™ Memory Protectors on my planner to add pictures, birthdays, and extra notes.

I also made couple planner clips using the Operation Smile stamp – Animal Greetings (D1679). Aren’t they cute?

To make them is very simple. Here are the steps:

On a piece of Watercolor Paper (or you can also use the White Daisy Cardstock), stamp the image with Black Archival Ink or Memento Ink Pad.
Color with Watercolor pencils.
Using the smallest brush from the Paintbrush set to wet the colored imaged with barely wet brush. You can dip the brush in a cup of clean water, them dap it on a paper towel, them wet the colors.
Use Craft Heater to speed the the drying, or you can let it air-dry for few minutes.
Trim the images using Non-Stick Micro-Tip Scissors.
Duplicate the trimmed image shapes for the backing.
Sandwish the paper clip between the colored image and the backing.
Add some Liquid Glass glue and hold it with clothespin.
Let it dry for couple of hours for best result before using it on the planner. Longer drying is better so it will hold stonger.

All supplies for the Planner kit and making the planner clips are available at my Close To My Heart Store (exclude the metal paper clips, you can get them at your local stores).

This collection was designed to coordinate perfectly with the sensational Everyday Life™ 2016 Planner Pages and My Crush® Everyday Life Pages, so you can seamlessly integrate pocket scrapbooking into your 2016 planner.

Whether in the planner or on their own, these cards make it easy to preserve your everyday moments all year long.

You still have time to grab the exclusive Picture My Life™ Live Your Day scrapbooking program for only $8.95 USD / $10.50 CAD before this offer is gone. Go here to grab this collection!

Thank You so very much for visiting today! And Thank You for shopping with me today!

Posted on Friday, January 22, 2016

Hope In God Who Gives Refuge

I am thankful both of my daughters are early risers 🙂 And it is a big challeng for me to get up earlier than them to give myself enough time to do my morning devotion time. But this week, The Big Girl had 2 days of 2 hours delay and 3 days no school (Monday was Martin Luther, Jr. Day and 2 Snow days). It was a short week of school and our days at home were full with noises, laughs, cries, games and never stop calling “Mama, I want this…” or “Mama, I am hungry!”

Those are some of those days when I cannot do my quite time in the mornings so I take some time in between days. And even sometimes both girls sat with me doing devotion together and painting. Moments I treasure with my God and my daughters.

My daughters are not distractions in my life, they are blessings from God!

This week I learned one character of God as the Father who cares for His children and God who gives refuge for those who seek for His help. In Ruth chapter 2, Naomi and Ruth had no hope when they went back to Bethlehem. Naomi was too old to work and Ruth was willing to give up her comfort life back in Moab. Ruth dedicated her life to take care of her mother-in-law.

Back in Bethlemen, Naomi was a foreigner. I can relate. I am a foreigner here in my husband’s country. I followed him back to Ohio out of love and trusting that God knows the life in this foreign country way before I set my foot in the country.

Ruth decided to go out to gather grain in the field with hope that the people who worked there would show her favor and let her collecting the grain on the ground for their food. God showed her His kindness and favor through the workers.

Then Boaz came home from his trip and he let her stayed with the women workers, ate and drank with them, and kelt collecting grain. She was surprised by his kindness to her becuase she was a foreigner in the lamd of Israel.

For Ruth, everything is “just happened” at that moment but for Naomi, even she was bitter, she knew in her heart that God took care for them and sent Boaz as the family redeemer.

Boaz said something amazing that changed Ruth’s view of being a foreigner. Boaz encouraged her with the truth that God will reward her for all kindness she has shown to her mother-in-law, putting her trust in the God of Israel and taking refuge under His wings.

Boaz gave Ruth hope by letting her know that God who would reward her and take care of her and Naomi.

Take Refuge under the wings of God Almighty. There is hope in the Lord. He will take care of us when we take refuge (rest; stay; take residence) under His wings (His place; His presence) every day as long as we live.

Often we say “just happened” in our every day life, but to God, that is more than mere coincidence. He is working in our lives in ways we may not even notice.

There is hope when we put our trust in Him to meet our needs in time of “famine”. Trusting Him gives us hope in hard circumstances that seems impossible to us to go through.

God has sent Jesus, the redeemer. He sent Jesus to give us hope for the future. He sent Jesus to save us from the death. All because He cares for you and me.

Let God do what he can do in your life today. You will be amazed!

This week journaling is a challenge for me to leave my comfort zone and step into new thing. I have been learning about mixed media and this page is a mixed media page. I used Gelatos, Acrylic paint, embosimg paste, stamping and stickers. Started with a mess and turned out to be an adoration for God.

Like our lives, when we surrender and take refuge under His wings, there is hope God will turn lives into what he has planned for us since the beginning.

May God bless you richly this weekend!

Posted on Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Chinese New Year Cards with Winnie and Walter

Today I am sharing 3 more Chinese cards I made to send to my family in Indonesia. All of them simply stamping amd embossing, 1 layer card with some blings 🙂

On this first card, using VersaMark™ Ink Pad, I stamped all images from Winnie and Walter stamp sets: The Party and Scenery – The Party Hangover; then I added some Ranger™ Princess Gold Embossing Powder and heat set them with my Craft Heater. I drew the lantern hanger with VersaMark™ Embossing Pen (LOVE this watermark pen!!)

The sentiment is from CTMH – November 2015 Stamp of The Month. I stamp and heat-embossed it, too. I finished the card with some clear gems.

For the second card, I did the same technique and same stamp sets from Winnie & Walter. But I wrote the sentiment and drew the lantern hangers using VersaMark™ Embossing Pen and added some Ranger™ Princess Gold Embossing Powder and heat set it with Craft Heater. And I added some gems to dress up the card.

And this is the last card I did the same way with same supplies, but this one I did not add any gems because I wanna make it simple and traditional as it is. Have I told you that I LOVE the VersaMark™ Embossing Pen? I do! A lot! Look at that Chinese writing I did it with that awesome embosing pen. That writing means Happiness.

I hope you all like my cards today and I link them up today at Winnie & Walter – ReRun Challenge No. 8 | Scenery: The Party Hangover.

Thank You for visiting!

Posted on Monday, January 18, 2016

The Cut Shoppe Guest Designer

I am super excited today I am sharing 3 projects at my friend, Ashley’s cutting files & printables shop blog – The Cut Shoppe – as a guest designer.

Please visit The Cut Hope blog post to see the full reveal of my projects! And you are there, check out the inspirations from the Design Team using the cutting files from her Etsy Store. All the cutting filescand printables are available in .svg and .png file formats, so you can use with any kind of eletronic diecutting machine.

See you at The Cut Shoppe Blog! Thank You all for visiting and have a fun crafty day!

Posted on Monday, January 18, 2016

The Lord Be With You And Bless You

Jesus came not to make us feel better, but to save us from the death. He came to redeem, to restore, to heal and to renew lives.

Today’s we start week 3 studying the book of Ruth with HelloMornings group. We read from Ruth 2:1-7. Ruth and Naomi settled in and started a new life in Bethlehem. Both of them are widows. They did not have any men in their lives to provide food on the table, they had to work to survive. As we all know, when we move to a new place, new city, new home, it takes a while to settle in and get used to the new place. But God was there with Naomi and Ruth.

God used Boaz – a wealthy, respected and God-loving single man – to bless Ruth and Naomi and to restore their lives. In God’s storyline, there is no such things as coincidence.

When I read this verse 4, God spoke to me personally to remind me to always greet others with His blessings. In this world already have too many sadness, discouragements and disappointments. Words we speak can be a blessing and encouragement to others, or can be a curse and discouragement to them.

Boaz knew Naomi becuase they were related because he was her husband’s relative. But Ruth, Boaz never met of her nor heard because she was married to Naomi’s son when they were in Moab. When Boaz heard about Ruth that she as a Moabite, he did not care that she was not from their tribe. He let her kept gathering the grain dropped by his workers, he even told them to “accidently” drop more so she could get more for their food.

We often meet strangers in need wherever we go. But we hold back to help them becuase we can come up with lots of reasons to not open our car window to talk to them, or to stop a while at store. We are afraid to help strangers because there are many bad cases we heard. We are afraid to help them because we just not know them.

But our God has blessed us with more for a purpose: to be a blessing to others. And I believe that the Holy Spirit will give us impression in our hearts which stangers who need helps and which ones not. I believe our God will use us to let others know that He cares for them and not to harm us.

You and I always hear people say or write “God bless you” in every end of conversation we have with other Christians. We say or write it not because we are Christians, or to let them know that we are Christians, but there is powerful message in that phrase. When we say, “God bless you” to others, we let them know that God is with them and He blesses them with His blessings! We release God’s blessings into their lives. This not just some empty words that we say out loud.

What would you feel in your spirit and heart when someone say it back to you? Would you believe that God will bless you? Or is it just a closing phrase?

This truth I read from the passage of the Bible totally change my motive and intention of saying, “God bless you” to others. Let’s we say it with faith that God truly is with them and will bless them abundantly! Not only with words, but let us bless them with our deeds, so that they may see the goodness of God and experience the presence of the LORD All Might to meet their needs.

And I pray that God will bless you all today!