Secret Santa swap

Hello, friends! In November I took part in a Secret Santa Swap organized by the Hero Arts Flickr Group. For the swap each person sent a hand-made Christmas card, a Christmas ATC and a gift to the person we were playing Secret Santa to.

This is my SS package for Heather. It was a double challenge. First, I have never made an ATC (Artist's Trading Card) before. Second, I needed to make a card for an outstanding cardmaker and not fall on my face. If you visit her blog Stamping and Stitching you will see what I mean.

Looking for a smaller sentiment to fit the tiny size of the ATC, I discovered I already have two sentiments "Joy" in one stamp set but in different scale (Holiday Sayings by Hero Arts). This fit the bill perfectly! I stamped Tiny Star Background with water on the sentiment flag.

Here's a peek into the process. I took a large piece of watercolor paper and tested various colors, color combos, inks, embossing on top of watercolor backgrounds (Winter Trees by Hero Arts). I used perfect pearls mixed with water and distress inks to color the dear family (Winter diary by Scrapberry's). For the background I also tried first and second generations of stamping. So I had lots of options for my card and the pieces which did not turn out I could use later on for grid cards.

Thank you for visiting! 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 crafts - Поделки к Рождеству и Н.г.

I made more reversible bags. I think about 12 of them. Most of them have already gone. I love how they have turned out - the tutorial is so good. Each bag is made of unique combination of fabrics. The last 3 ones I did with a short cut. Instead of the 16 squares for both side of the bag I sewed a four-patch and a 4" border around it for one of its sides.



Last week while my husband was away on a business trip, my son and I had a fun evening making simple & quick cards, stamping and stapling them. I also did gift tags with origami trees - a lot of fun. The pattern is here - http://rfoelker.sites.uol.com.br/cartao2.gif And learned that making gift tags is quicker than cards, plus you save on the paper!