Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, dear friends! Our Savior was born! We had a very full year and December is always a challenge. So with years comes wisdom, now if I want to make some special Christmas party for friends, I do it early, in the first half of December. Because many people get too busy before the New Year, some leave the city, others get sick. So the closer it gets to the end of the month, the lower the chances are that we can get together... I had a Christmas party for our friends. We closed our English club for a holiday. We read a story of Christ's birth, solved Christmas puzzles, made a Candy Cane craft and had a gingerbread tea party.

With homeschooling 3 sons this year, I feel more responsibility to do it well. One of my sons has had an eye trauma. He has to wear a patch for 6 hours a day. I need to be creative how to teach him, as he can not read or write while he is training his weak eye. He is more patient now, but I was very hard on us at first. I encourage him by saying that from an early age God is building his character.

We have celebrated Christmas today at our church. We've had a wonderful celebration.

I managed to carve some time for crafting. I colored some pieces ahead of time, so I could just finish cards when I needed them. I have revisited some of my designs. For the first time I have made a 3-d dear card. Why have not I thought about it before? The new Hero Arts Candy Cane cling rubber stamp. It looks pretty cut into a frame. I am not quite happy with the embossing powder falling off. I will need to look for other red ep.

I have made Bible memory gift cards with Isaiah and Micah's prophecies on Jesus' birth.

Some more Christmas cards and tags with Bible verses inside.

Thank you for visiting! Maria

Spring is in the air

Hello, dear friends,

Almost all our family was sick and it took about four weeks for everyone to recover. I hope the sickness is not coming back. I am looking forward to warm days and more time outside.

Our Bibles study group finished studying the second part of the Motherwise materials focusing on the relationship with our husbands. Now we're embarking on discussing loving and disciplining our kids.I was inspired to dig into the first 4 chapters of the 1 Samuel trying to understand why Eli did not stop his sons from sinning. There's a powerful message from God in those passages. My main discoveries are - Samuel was devoted to serve the Lord from his mother's womb (his character contrasts that of Eli's sons) and Eli's ruin was due to his inability to discipline his children (He should have acted on his words).

I've made some spring cards. All stamps are Hero Arts. The bird is colored with Distress inks and water, popped up for dimension. I stamped it twice, so I would avoid cutting out the intricate feet. The tiny flowers from the Hero Arts' set Hexagons were both stamped on the branch and stamped on pattern paper and cut out to create some dimension. The centers are done with stickles.

My 5 y.o. son enjoys making these Easter basket(pocket) cards for friends from leftover pattern paper. The idea is from Pinterest.

Thank you for visiting! Maria

Slowing down

Hello, dear friends!

I grew to appreciate Pinterest more recently, as I find lots of useful information there. At first I thought it was mostly inspiring pictures... But recently I discovered Spiritual lessons for kids, encouragement for mothers. A few months ago I found a great exercise routine which changed my life a lot. I enjoy working out for 40 minutes and my body gets rid of stress.

After the 25th of December life is slowing down. As I have mentioned before, we started homeschooling our oldest children since last August. My oldest son, Yegor (6th grade), has passed his 2 last exams, this totals 5 yearly exams: Biology, Geography, English, Social Studies and Math. He mostly studied on his own with a bit of my help and encouragement, except for the math, he needed his father's help to prepare thoroughly. Timothy (2d grade) has passed 3 yearly exams: Science, Math and PE. He did very well for his age and temperament.

During Christmas season I want to give lots of cards, but my time is very limited, so this year I made lost of small cards with the Bible verses from Isaiah I quoted in my previous blogpost. I love these promises of the birth of Jesus, the names He would be called. During Christmas it is good to revisit them and I reminded myself I should not assume everyone knows them. So I printed them out and made these cute little cards. I gave them all away today after the church service.

This is all our family skiing at the near-by pine forest. I am so thankful for the beautiful weather, fresh air and sparkling snow. December feels much better compared to November.

Thank you for visiting!

Maria

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, dear friends! С Рождеством, дорогие друзья!

"Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel" (Isaiah 7:14).

"Итак Сам Господь даст вам знамение: се, Дева во чреве приимет и родит Сына, и нарекут имя Ему: Еммануил" Исайя 7:14.

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6).

"Ибо младенец родился нам - Сын дан нам; владычество на раменах Его, и нарекут имя Ему: Чудный, Советник, Бог крепкий, Отец вечности, Князь мира" Исайя 9:6.

Maria

Small keepsakes

Hello, friends!

I am enjoying summer, however, there's still a lot of work for a mother:) We had a very pleasant event at our church - a lunch for the Sunday school teachers and volunteers. The fellowship was so sweet. I brought a fruit salad and a cottage cheese & poppy seed cake, a new recipe, that is quickly becoming our family's favorite.

The love and devotion of the teachers inspired me to make some keepsakes for them. I always look for ways to incorporate Scriptures into my stamping. I picked up some encouraging words -

"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him" (1 Corinthians, Chapter 2:9a)and

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit" (Romans 15:13)

printed them and pasted on the white embossed tags cut out of pretty patterned papers. These nice gifts that are easily mass-produced.

Thank you for visiting and have a great day!

Maria

Christmas cards 2012

With years I am learning that the best thing I can do is to prepare in advance, so I made my Christmas cards in November and had them mailed in early December. There're so many things I want to do with my kids in December: bake cookies, make cards, prepare a fun night, give gifts to friends and teachers, I pray I have peace to do all this and help them with school at the same time.

I am keeping my activities down: "Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind" Ecclesiastes 4:6. I treasure the peace God gives me especially when I loose it. In this passage I am reminded that I loose tranquility when I burden myself with too much - "the two hands full of toil". This year I finally have this Nativity set by Hero Arts called The Greatest Gift. As soon as I came up with an idea of using vellum pockets for my Christmas cards this year, I was inspired. The central image and sentiment were stamped in on go and heat embossed in copper on vellum.

The glitter and sequins give a pleasant swoosh sound if you shake the card. I "accidentally" caught some sequins while stitching and made some matching vellum tags.

The cards turned out tricky to photograph. Finally after the 3d or 4th attempt I was able to get a decent shot after taking it outside on my balcony.

At first I wished I had more beige colored vellum, but I realized the advantage of mixing and matching different colors and backgrounds like I used to pick fabrics for my quilts. My husband and kids watched a comedy and I worked on my cards watching them enjoy and laugh at the movie.

These tags were made from the many panels I made using markers and distress inks when trying to find a perfect match for this card. Thank you for visiting! Have a peaceful December!