Posted on Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Year In Review To Move Forward (+ DIY Sketchbook Journal Cover)

It is New Year’s Eve!!! WOW… can you believe that we are on the last day of 2014?

I am thankful for 2014.

Looking back for what we’ve been through this year, I am thankful. As family we learned so many things together. The big girl started her Kindergarten this year. The little girl can say her ABC and counting 1-20, although she always says, “1, 3, 2, 4, 5,…” LOL!!! Both girls love dancing, singing and crafting, too. I am one happy Mama who can craft with her girls 🙂

As parents, Dave and I grow in learning to be parents, keep asking God to give us wisdom to teach them the truth and walk in love. We went through tough days but He was there to help us.

Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it (Proverbs 22:6, NLT).

We love love love camping out in the Spring, Summer & Fall! That the best thing we found out our daughters LOVE being out in the nature because both my husband and I love outdoor activities.

As husband and wife, we celebrated our 6th Anniversary and this year was our 7th Christmas together. Each day we grow to love each other more and more… I am thankful for my amazing, loving and supporting husband. Dave is an answer to my prayer!

There was a bit change in our ministry. In January we resigned from Wycliffe Bible Translators. We were so discouraged and kept seeking God for answers. Dave and I felt in our hearts that God still want us to go to SEA* as missionaries. So, we went to a mission conference focusing on that particular country. There we learned so much important updates, talked to some people and meeting with some friends we knew before from the country. We were looking for an new opportunity to serve. Then couple days after we came back home, we got a call from the area director of Wycliffe Associates (it is a partner organization with WBT) and a director of a mission agency in the country offering both of us opportunities that we never thought of before. These new opportunities are perfectly fit for each of us. We were surprised by God and how He worked again and again! So we started our journey in September and right now we are raising support to go to SEA* serving with Wycliffe Associates as supported volunteers in 2015! We have some works to do remotely from home and cannot wait to work with the mother tongue translators & local churches directly soon to help them bringing the Good News to the 450+ Unreached & Bibleless People Groups!

If you would like to know more details, we would love to share with you more 🙂 You can sign up for our ministry newsletter & prayer update HERE. Please pray for us daily in our preparation to go and also please be prayerfully to consider to support us to go here. Your prayers & partnership end the Bible poverty in SEA*, because of your partnership those people can have God’s word in languages they can understand best in their hearts so that they may come to worship the one true living God through Jesus Christ through the works we will be doing there with the team.

We are thankful for our families, friends, church, and all new partners God has brought into our lives in 2014. THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts!

This year has been amazing for me personally. I learn a lot. Through personal quite time with the Lord, He help me to keep my eyes on Him and have faith in Him. Also, through group devotional time with our small church prayer meeting group & HelloMornings group, I learned so much of God, His love & truly He listened to our prayers.

In August, again, I was able to attend an amazing women blogging conference, Declare Conference, in Texas. I reconnected with blogging & online friends, met new “internet” friends I met in real life & even God led me to new connections with some friends. This was my second conference and He has blessed me tremendously! I am praying and hoping to go next year if we’re still here 🙂 You should check this conference and pray about going! They have limited seats for 2015!

In October, a scrapbooking friend introduced me to a group on Facebook, Journaling Bible Community, where I find lots of inspirations how to illustrate our faith and love for God in creative ways.

In that group, a lot by a lot of crafty friends inspire to learn more of this illustrating God’s word in creative ways. When we went out buying Christmas gifts, I found a big sketch book at Barnes & Noble for only $8.99! So I grabbed it and plan to use this sketch book for my 2015 Bible Study creatively 🙂

I decorated the book cover with some paper doilies, washi tapes (CTMH), gold sequins assortment (CTMH) and mini stapler (CTMH)

For the big year title, I cut the 2015 with my Silhouette Cameo using DCWV glitter cardstock and the triangle border I cut the glitter cardstock using the Triangles Cutting plate from Taylored Expressions.

The white polkadots is very easy to do. I trace the numbers, and then start stamping the dots using the eraser of my daugther’s pencil. I used CTMH White Archival Ink. I heat set it for a quick dry. Then I glued the numbers and triangle border.

Today I am sharing my project at Stuck On U Sketches Die Cut new challenge, Anything New Year. Check it out here!

Hope you can play along with us this week 🙂 Click here to link up your project(s).

I wanna take this day to THANK YOU ALL for all your love, prayers & supports in 2014 for me and my family! Thank you for inspiring me!

HAPPY NEW YEAR to you and your family.
God bless you abundantly in 2015!

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Link up this post at:
Inspire Me Monday – Week 156

The Pretty Pintastic Party #35

Posted on Wednesday, December 17, 2014

SOUS Die Cut Challenge – Anything Christmas

There are many ways you can decorate or dress up a plain paper gift bag. And today I am sharing my project at Stuck On U Sketches, Die Cut Challenge – Anything Christmas. Check out the project there and how I created this gift bag.

You still have time to come and play along with us this week! Link up your projects here to share with us! I am looking forward to see them! Have a Merry Christmas!

Supplies:

Silhouette Cameo, mat and blade
Cutting files: Tag Album with Frame, Build A Rosette Strip
Kraft paper bag
Snowhaven paper packet
Slate Diagonal Striped Ribbon
Liquid Glass
Olive Exclusive Inks pad
Mini spray pen (or bottle)
Cardstock: white and red
8″ paper doily
Extra embellishments: mini clothespin, christmas tree, etc.
Sentiment stamp (I used a Holiday sentiment set from Paper Smooches)

Thanks for visiting!

Posted on Monday, December 8, 2014

12 Days DIY Christmas 2014 (Day 8), Silhouette Challenge Blog Hop & Giveaway!

Today is gonna be an awesome one! I am super excited and can’t wait to share this with you! And it is a little longer blog post, but worth it to read all the way 🙂

First is Silhouette Giveaway! There will be 2 winners!! Make sure to read all the way to find out the detail and how to enter. I really really really LOVE my Silhouette Cameo! Since the first day I got it (surprise gift from my husband), I have been making a lot of cards, scrapbook layouts, home decors, and even craft projects with my daughters. So, you wanna enter this amazing giveaway!

And second, today is day 8 of the 12 Days DIY Christmas this year, I would love to share with you a project I made using Silhouette Cameo today that it is one of my favorite projects ever… Candle Jar Sleeve. I participate on an awesome blog hop hosted by Silhouette Challenge group, where you can find tons of inspirations and tutorials of projects using either Silhouette Cameo and Portrait. Another reason why you want to enter this giveaway 🙂

I love candles. When they are all gone, I clean the jars to reuse them. This one is one of them. And I was thinking I need some more Christmas theme decorations in this house and came across an idea to make candle jar sleeve to decorate this used candle jar.

It is an easy and quick project that you can do for any seasons or occasions. I already have a list to make for Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter again 😀

Okay 🙂 Now the supplies. You’ll need:

Silhouette machine
Blade (new is better for cutting intricate designs)
Cutting mat
Silhouette Studio Designer Edition
Shape you want to cut (I picked Nativity scene from Lori Withlock)
Spatula
Cardstock (I used black for better silhouette looking)
Glue
Candle Jar
First of all, open the Silhouette Studio software and open the shape you wanna cut. I resized the Nativity scene to 11″ x 2 1/2″ and drew a rectangle a bit longer, about 11 1/4″ and 1″ tall. Ungroup. Then rearrange the individual shapes to where you’ll like.

I did not use the phrase so I dragged it to out side of the cutting mat. Then as you can see in the picture below, I dragged the rectangle to overlapping with the bottom of the nativity shapes.

Once you like the position, select all the shapes. Open the Weld Box by clicking on the little that has letter M with circle and rectangle.

Click weld…. Ta-da! 🙂

Cut the cardstock to 12″ x 5″ and put it on the cutting mat. Load the mat to the machine, make sure the setting on the machine is “Load Cutting Mat.”
Send the shape to Silhouette machine by clicking the square button on the upper left with Silhouette machine symbol.

Make sure the setting is set for the cardstock and adjust the blade on the machine according to the correct blade setting. Always test cut to make sure everything is set correctly. Then click cut.

And done. I used battery operated tea light for this one. Also I added some fake snowflakes at the bottom of the jar.

Want to Check Out More Silhouette Projects?

My Silhouette Challenge buddies and I are all sharing projects on our blogs today, so peruse the projects below for a wealth of Silhouette inspiration!

1. Pineapples and Pinecones // 2. Simply Kelly Designs // 3. Architecture of a Mom // 4. Just a Girl and Her Blog // 5. Two Purple Couches // 6. Chicken Scratch NY // 7. Creative Ramblings // 8. One Dog Woof // 9. Ginger Snap Crafts // 10. The Thinking Closet // 11. Please Excuse My Craftermath… // 12. Designer Trapped in a Lawyer’s Body // 13. weekend craft // 14. Dragonfly & Lily Pads // 15. Practically Functional // 16. Living My Given Life // 17. My Paper Craze // 18. The Kim Six Fix // 19. Home At Eight // 20. Queen of Everything // 21. Tried & True // 22. McCall Manor // 23. unOriginal Mom // 24. Create it. Go! // 25. From Wine to Whine // 26. GetSilvered // 27. It’s Always Ruetten // 28. Nearly Handmade // 29. Mama Sonshine // 30. Silhouette School // 31. It Happens in a Blink // 32. Create & Babble // 33. Sowdering About // 34. Where The Smiles Have Been // 35. My Favorite Finds // 36. Lil’ Mrs. Tori // 37. Designed Decor

Silhouette Giveaway!

And I’ve saved the best for last. My Silhouette Challenge buddies in partnership with Silhouette America are hosting a mega-huge giveaway for not one…but two winners! The prizes up for grabs?

First prize: The NEW Silhouette Cameo Machine and Designer Edition Super Bundle! $406.93 value.

Silhouette CAMEO®
Designer Edition Software
Dust Cover
$25 Download Card
Four Essential Silhouette Tools (hook, spatula, scraper, pick-me-up™)

Second prize: Silhouette Portrait Machine and Rhinestone Starter Kit! $219.98 value.

Pretty sweet, huh? We want you to have the chance to get that Silhouette machine that might still be on your wish list.

To enter: just complete the entries in the Rafflecopter widget below or at this link. Because of my many blog friends who helped make this giveaway possible, you have 42 potential entries, which means a lot of winning power. So, hurry up and enter!

{This giveaway runs from today through Monday, December 15th at 11:59p eastern and is open to anyone 18 years of age or older with a U.S. or Canada mailing address. You can read the rest of the terms and conditions in the widget below.}

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank You for visiting and Good Luck!

Posted on Wednesday, December 3, 2014

12 Days DIY Christmas 2014: Day 3

Today’s project , I am inspired by the idea of gift in mason jar that I saw on Pinterest.

But I did not use mason jar. I recycled candle jars 🙂

To clean the left over candle wax in the jar, pour hot water in the candle jar and let it sit for few minutes until all wax come loose and they will float on the surface. DO NOT TOUCH the jar because it will be super hot! I learned that in a hard way.

When you see the wax floating and the jar is cool down, use your finger or plastic spoon to get them out of the jar. Then wash it clean with soap. I let it dry for over night or you can just wipe it dry with towel.

Once it is clean and dry, you cam decorate it or leave it clear, all up to you. I decorate it with Gold Polka Dot Washi Tape and Ruby Chevron Washi Tape.

Then I filled the jar with Kisses in Christmas colors. Then I added a tag that I cut a bunch of then with my Silhouette Cameo.

I stamped the sentiment from Made From Scratch stamp set with Topiary Exclusive Ink Stamp Pad and the heart with Cranberry Exclusive Inks Stamp Pad. I cut the heart and glued it on top of the other one. Then I cut the label shaped and added on the tag using 3D Foam Tape for some dimension. I added a little gold christmas tree using Liquid Glass. Because regular craft glue won’t work on gluing glittery shape.

Finally, I added the tag on the jar lid with Topiary Mini Chevron Ribbon.

I link up this project at Creative Spark Link Party #31

Hope you’ll like it and thank you for stopping by!

Posted on Tuesday, December 2, 2014

12 Days DIY Christmas 2014: Day 2

Today I would like to share couple ornaments I made with my Silhouette Cameo for my swap friend, Lucy.

The shapes I used for these ornaments are the Advent shapes that come with the Silhouette Advent Wire Frame Kit I got last year.

First, I cut the Silhouette Chipboard for the bases of the ornaments so they will be sturdy enough. And then I cut 3 more of each shape using patter christmas patterns. These are Sparkle and Shine paper packet from Close To My Heart but they are retired.

I added some glitter glue on each side for little sparkle, jingle bells, ribbon and twine so they can put them on the tree.

And these are the cute ornaments she made for my daughters. They just love these angles and they put them on our tree.

We participated at The Silhouette Challenge Facebook Group – Ornament Swap event. It is a fun, inspiring and amazing support group for Silhouette die cutting machine users, both beginner and veteran crafters. If you would like to join us, please fill out this form first.

Hope you like them as much as we do 🙂 Have a merry December!