A few more perspectives of encouraging gifts

Encouraging gift set

I just came back from our Annual Women's Retreat where we shared a time of fellowship and encouragement. As part of the weekends events we were to leave an anonymous encouraging gift for one another. This is what I chose to make and give as my gift. I have no idea who God chose to receive my gift, but I pray that they will be encouraging to her. The sentiment stamp on the candle is by Stampabilities and was stamped with SU chocolate chip ink, the leaves were from Autumn Leaves clear stamps Fine and Dandy. The flowering branch was by Inkadinkado. I stamped both these images in SU close to cocoa and old olive. I offstamped some of the images and stamped a few fully inked to give some added dimension. The images were stamped onto white tissue paper that was heat set onto candle with heat tool and wax paper, to hold image still while tissue paper melted onto the candle. The framed image was with SU Petal prints set and close to cocoa and old olive inks, the butterfly was Inkadinkado Garden words set in really rust. The frame was from Sears Portrait Studios. I hope you are encouraged by these gifts and inspired to create your own to pass on to someone you know who might need some encouragement. Thank you for visiting and feel free to let me know what you think of this project.

Rachael's Earth Dragon

This is a drawing my daughter made of an earth dragon. She drew it using the book "The Art of Drawing Dragons, Mythological Beasts and Fantasy Creatures" by Michael Dobrzycki. She used an HB pencil, a charcoal pencil and a regular mechical pencil for this sketch. She starting drawing seriously about 1 1/2 years ago. Let her know what you think of it by leaving her a comment.

Andrew's 100th Day of School Project

Andrew, had to make a project for the 100th day of school using 100 objects. He chose to make a poster with 100 pennies and he stamped 100s all around in green (since this is his favorite color). Andrew loves crafting and stamping, so he really enjoyed this project. Don't you think he did a great job?

3D Flowerbox Paper Garden

I was inspired by my son to recycle this very unique box of Trident layers gum. My son turned this box into a 3D person, with an additional person kept in bottom pocket. We put a magnet on the back and he gave it to a dear friend of mine for Christmas. After finishing another box of gum, I thought I would try my hand at making a crafty creation with the box. I stamped flower boxes and stems from the Martha Stewart clear stamp set. I used punched flowers with gems and glitter. I also used a few felt flowers from American Crafts Greenhouse collection. I punched a butterfly using Martha Stewart punch and added a few gems. Tied a ribbon for top of box and added a magnet to the back. I love the 3D flower box paper garden. Remember you can turn trash into a treasure.

The Gift of Warmth

My son received these beautiful blue and orange knitted mittens from his teacher's mother. She knit with a friend a pair for each child in his classroom. I made this card to thank her on behalf of my son who was thrilled with his special mittens. He felt so special to receive such a special gift.

I cut the mittens in blue and orange cardstock with a Sizzix die and ran both through my corregater. I cut part of orange mitten and glued it to the blue mitten. I used a white card base and embossed with Cuttlebug snowflake die. I used Martha Stewart snowflake punch and added glitter glue. I rounded the corners of the card as a special touch.

Oh Baby - card

I made this card with my Cricut Expressions machine, no stamping at all. I cut the birds/nest at 2 1/2 inches from chipboard and dp. I used the multicut setting on my machine and set it under settings for 2X and it cut perfectly. This was not regualar chipboard it was the lightweight cardboard that is packed in with new jammies and such. (Good way to recycle :)) I also cut the branch at 2 1/2 inches from cardboard and dp. The sentiment was 1 1/2 inches. All of these images were off the Zooballoo cart. I added Family/love dp for background and varigated ribbon as accent. This was designed for a friend of mine to welcome her new baby. I am starting to become more comfortable with my machine and trying new things, this was a lot of fun to make. The hardest part was choosing the papers.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all. I hope that 2010 will allow for many more opportunities to create and encourage others. Here is one of my favorite cards. Not much stamping involved other than the sentiment. Used a corner rounder on card base and cut two circles, which I cut in half (can make two cards). I embossed one circle with the Cuttlebug circle embossing folder and aligned in center of card base and covered seam with chocolate brown ribbon and buttons. I used my SU flower punch to create flowers out of complimentary papers and used flower brads (Making memories) for the centers and attached.

Enjoy your day.