Sanrio on Stage

Another layout from Puroland in Tokyo. This one has photos of some of the characters. My favorites were always Hello Kitty and Pochacco. I actually had lots of the Pochacco line. Many of my items on my desk at work, as well as my lunch box, were Pochacco. (For any of you unfamiliar, he is in the photo on the right!)

My papers are from my scrap bin, love when I can use them. I got my inspiration from challenges at A Cherry on Top. For my first challenge I used specific dimensions of the 4 pieces to cut from patterned papers. My circle piece I cut with Cricut. To give the edges a little something I used a Sakura Gelly Roll Gold Shadow pen to make an outline. The top piece is made with a border punch from EK Success. With all the glitz and sparkle on stage, which I could not capture, I added lots of gems, sequins, gold flowers and shinny brads.

I do enjoy making scrapbook pages. I hope my family will enjoy them in the future. They are a pleasant way to look back on this life. Moments with our loved ones, though, are the delights of this world. Staying focused on the meaning of this life I remind myself of my reality here. I’m not here for the pleasures of this life. We all are just passing through. We are on a mission – and, yes, it is a mission of great importance! Love others as Jesus loves us. Why? Because Eternity may be just a moment away and we don’t want to miss that!

Thanks for checking out my latest scrapbook page! Be filled with love and find peace today.

Hugs,

Joyce Ann

Rejoice Happy Easter Card

Three weeks until Easter and this is only my second Easter card. I am so behind!

Do you fellow card makers find challenges as beneficial as I? I pulled out my Easter supplies. Then tacked a challenge over at A Cherry on Top. Ever since Barb posted hers I was inspired. Being a graphic design artist she has some wonderful ideas for inspiration. Today I selected one of her choices and went to work deciding how I would represent this image.

This is my supply information.

Stamp and die – Taylored Expressions , colored with Prismacolor pencils, sentiments are heat embossed with gold powder.

The white brick patterned paper is from Fancy Pants Magnolia collection. Along the outside edges I have washi tapes and heat embossed Stampendous Fran-tage powder.

Gray card stock used to mat the arched window and the card base before pasting to a card made from Neenah white.

That’s my card for today. I do have hopes to start another before long.

I pray you are doing well in your Lenten journey, and may you and yours have a blessed Easter celebration!

Solemnity of St. Joseph at 8:30 AM Mass

Celebrating this mass today was special.

After our studies last year on the Consecration to St. Joseph I truly learned how special he is to us, still today. I look forward to the times I can honor him.

Our Music Director led a choir beautifully. Such spirit-filled music!

Following the Mass we were lead in a possession to the Parish Center, accompanied by our Knights.

We took part in a prayerful litany before departing and another in the Parish Center at the “Table” that was prepared beautifully by a parishioner and her team in the tradition of how it was first celebrated in Sicily. It is like have a Father’s Day for St. Joseph. He is.of course, the foster father of our savior Jesus. Our priest, Fr. Jeremiah said the blessing. I, then, had to take pictures!

Last October I took the challenge to study “Consecration to St. Joseph” by Donald H. Calloway, MIC. I learned so much! My eyes were opened to the fact that St. Joseph is a father to me, actually the only one. When I fully understand the role he played as foster father to our Lord and what he still is working for all us children of God, I was overwhelmed with peace.

I pray to St. Joseph just about every day, I say a prayer to him after praying the Rosary. I hope you will come to know and love St. Joseph.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a blessed day!

And pray!

Thanks, Joyce Ann

Big Birthday Hugs for Kara

My sweet Granddaughter will celebrate a birthday in two weeks! This is the card I made for her.

This large Swallowtail Butterfly rubber stamp is one I bought from Stampin’ Up several years ago. Today’s Retro Rubber Challenge Blog says “Anything Goes”, as long as my rubber stamp is more than 1 year old.

I got the idea for this technique from a Jennifer McGuire YouTube today. Great fun to try! After using clear heat embossing power (twice) of the stamp on FSJ’s Beach Ball card stock, I used my finger to rub on some Craf-T Products metallic rub-ons. We have had these rubs for a lot of years and I forget about them.

“Hugs” was cut from a Waffle Flower die from shiny gold card stock. The words were heat embossed with gold detail powder right onto the card. The gold flat pearls I think are from Michael’s. I tried a few different ideas formatting and making the card base – ended up with matting with the same Beach Ball blue and pasting it the a SU River Rock card base.

This technique was fun and I really like the metallic look the different colors blended into.

It’s getting late and I’m about to go heat up some yummy leftovers for supper.

Thanks for stopping in!

A Precipice or a Bridge?

Getting out of bed in the morning often feels like facing a huge precipice to scale.  This morning I woke up with the memory of a dream.  I don’t always dream, often it is just scrambled bits of nonsense.  This one was clear.  This dream was centered on my son.

I could feel him radiating with joy.  Together we were enjoying our day, doing what activities we were involved in as we made this a great day together.  Usually remembering a dream means starting another day depressed.  Joey’s presence in the dream brought me joy instead of regret today.  The difference this morning was that I felt a twinkling of peace and hope.

Interesting how an unexpected image can trigger an avalanche of new thought. A writing prompt from WordPress deeply touched me.  The prompt was a photo of a bridge, massive, stretching across a beautiful wilderness.  Comforting, some how.  Later as my day took shape and filled up with the duties of my life, a bridge flickered into my thoughts again.  It was faint, but something new was present in my being. I felt a presence of hope.

For years I’ve wanted so much to let go of the regret I’ve carried for my failure as a mother.  I couldn’t take care of my precious son when he was struggling.  I should have done so much more to help him.  I have prayed for Jesus’ forgiveness, begged for his forgiveness!  After my Confession several weeks back the priest told me that Jesus did truly forgive me if I made I good and pure confession.  I truly did.  So, why can’t I believe that Jesus completely forgave me?  Why can’t I let go of my guilt?

I see that beautiful bridge before me, coming into focus.  It is my symbol to take the steps necessary to strengthen my faith.  A well fortified bridge weathers the journey for its travelers.  Just as a bridge needs the right reinforcements and maintenance to withstand the wear of use, so does our spiritual path need care to build an unshakable connection. God provides what we need, we have to believe in him to carry us through. How is my bridge of Faith holding up?  Do I believe Jesus at his word?

This is the season of Lent is overflowing with opportunities to work on spending our time with God strengthening our faith.  Am I paying attention when I read the Bible? Am I listening to the very Word of God being spoken to me?  Am I merely skimming over the words of the prayers that I know by heart, or am I truly praying the prayer?

Dear Heavenly Father, I pray for your grace to strengthen my faith in you.  You are my rock and fortress, for you are my strength.  I trust in you, you have redeemed me, Lord, God of truth.  In Jesus’ Holy Name I pray, Amen.  (Read and pray Psalm 31)

#WordPrompt

“V” is for Valentine

I chose some of my older stamps today for this card. The stamps are from Stampin’ Up sets dated 2012 and 2013. The metal frame and punch are quite old too.

This is for two great challenges! I started with Sketch – N – Scrap for this delightful sketch:

I couldn’t resist the banner layer. I picked two papers from my scrap bin for the two panels I matted in black for the gray card. The strip under the sentiment is some leftover Echo Park paper and I used a corner rounder on it. The added stamped and punched hanging banner is backed in a thick black to give it good body, punched a hole and tied twine which I wrapped around the main panel before adhering. Gives it a nice little dangle.

It is always a pleasure to be able to participate in the Retro Rubber Challenge, and these two sets are very old!

I’m thankful for those of you who stop in and let me know you have taken a peek at some crafty item I have put together. You make my heart happy!

We have just received the tragic news today that a sweet friend who was a close friend over the years of my granddaughter (age 30) just lost a friend of theirs – just dropped dead. He said he didn’t fell so well and fell out. How shocking. They will wait for an autopsy but it doesn’t matter now. This comes to this friend 3 days after his dear father has died suddenly. My heart breaks for this young man. (Age 30 something is very young to me.)

With St. Valentine’s Day approaching, please tell the people you know how much you care about them. Actually, we should never let ANY moments pass without telling someone you care about them.

We are all children of our Lord God. Remember God so loved us, we are his creation, that he sent us Jesus to help and guide us to do what is right and just. The world tempts us to be led to the worldly distractions, abandoning what is our loving purpose as we wait in this life. Do not disregard the call you hear to return to your faith and love our God, who is the very origin of LOVE. We are called to love one another as Jesus loves us. Not just sometimes. So, I ask you to turn away from any wrong doing and try harder – this is what I struggle with, so I know what I am asking!

I leave you with this last thought, make something pretty and give it to someone, especially someone who could use a warm smile!

More Photos of Battleship Mikasa

Double page sketches are either intimidating or encouraging for me.

This sketch from Stickitdown blogspot Worked well for me.I still had a lot of vertical photos from our tour of the Mikasa Ship Museum in Yokosuka, Japan.

In addition to finding this perfect sketch that I was able to easily match up to some 2 year old photos, I used old stash.

Snow Much Fun in Pink

This cute penguin, all cozy in her cap and sweater, is delighted with the pink flurry I made with Spampendous Fran-tage. I love all my embossing enamels from Stampendous and this gorgeous “Shabby Pink” makes a dreamy background for the Crafter’s Companion stamped penguin.

I applied Versamark with a blender brush through the Brutus Monroe stencil. To heat the enamel I held the heat tool underneath a little to give the product a chance to melt a bit first. Applying heat directly to the top blows away too much of the gorgeous particles.

Snow banks are made by hand cutting white in the shape I thought would be fun. Each is dry embossed and lightly sponged. To give it lift I added extra layers of cardboard.

The sentiment piece is also edged with the enamel and popped up on foam dots.

Thank you for stopping by! I encourage you to visit Simon Says Stamp Blog for this Wednesday Challenge – Cold As Ice and play along. So much beautiful inspiration!

Amazing at 2 Months

These photos are a joy to look back at today. A Cherry on Top has a PageMaps sketch challenge that I wanted to try. Looking in a box of older photos. These were perfect.

For tketches can be so much fun. They give direction, of course, but more often they open the creative door. Here I had to dig a bit to find just the right element to make this layout. May papers are from a Bo Bunny collection. Some of the stamps are also by Bo Bunny: stitches, doilies, and tiny buttons. No spider web for this cutie, so I used a GinaK stencil instead. The two sentiment stamps are also old and from Fun Stampers Journey. The title one I penned on some Sakura Gold Shadow gel pen and the other I used a Sakura clear glaze pen. The giraffe, I colored with gels also and fussy cut out, which was cute because this baby girl is a fan of giraffes.

I always appreciate when someone stops by to read about my crafty fun! Thank you!

Won’t you say a prayer for our world right now? God still loves each and every one of us, even if we don’t realize that fact. In the messed up world one might think God has forgotten about His creation. I think He is waiting for us to do our part to make even one little something better for us all. Maybe we can put a smile on a someone’s face and remind them they are loved. There is so much more that needs to be done!

I hope you scrapbook makers will find some fun in your next work with a sketch!

Hugs, Joyce Ann

Picture Perfect Leftovers Layout

Have you saved lots of those extra photos that didn’t make it on a layout? It sure is something I do. It is just sooo hard to toss pics of my sweeties.

Here is a great sketch from Stick it Down Blogspot that worked for me. It is the October 4th double page sketch.

A Cherry on Top shared this one for the October Double Sketch Challenge. This inspired me to pull out older photos and I found what I think is a good collection to use here.

Notice that I altered this sketch to work for my photos. A couple would not work for cutting down so I let those fill two spots. Another alteration is the spot for a single but I love this pair of my little guy who really wasn’t in the mood for posing.

Also on the ACOT website I was inspired by another challenge, the October 3 in a Row. For this challenge I used the top row: Graphic 45, 3+ triangles, flowers.

We all have to make choices in our day, some are easier, some not so much. My prayer for all who decided to stop by my post is that you will choose to follow what is right and just as taught by our Lord, Jesus. Mainly – “Love one another as I have loved you”. There is never an end to God’s love for us. The Holy Spirit will whisper the right choice!

Thanks for checking out my layout. Please stop by Stick it Down and A Cherry on Top for their great inspiration for all your paper crafting today.

Hugs, Joyce Ann