Hello again, we have been in the deep freeze here, and we are not used to it.  Usually only a few days a year that are this cold, but we have had a couple of weeks below freezing and below zero a few nights. I don't care for it.  Paul said in Philippians 4:11, "I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content"  I still have some work to do to get to this perspective.

The malinois is as crazy as ever.  He has been sleeping inside at night with the temperatures being so cold.  I am not sure it is necessary with his thick coat, but I hate to think of him being cold, so he sleeps in the living room and I sleep on the couch, because the Tasmanian devil cannot be left alone in the house at all, and in the bedroom he will not be calm, he is "on guard" all the time, meaning everything MUST be checked out, there is no laying down and being quiet. He is more familiar with the living room, so he can relax in there some.

He has also finally learned to use his dog house outside.  We had guessed that he would not use it because he could not see out of it and was afraid something would sneak up on him, but it got really windy one night and he decided he could use the dog house and has used it regularly since.  The first morning I came out and he was in there, he looked like he had let me down, he was so ashamed I had caught him sleeping and not watching; he is a very interesting animal to say the least.

Below is a birthday card I made for my DIL, I cut a large tag out of brown textured card stock and put a piece of paper I had ripped out of an encyclopedia about Rudyard Kipling, (she is an English/Literature teacher).  I cut a little smaller tag out of off white textured card stock and distressed the edges of it with Tim Holtz distress inks, not sure what color.  Used the sketch pen in a bronze color to write on that card.  I cut one even small out of the same brown card stock and used the silver sketch pen to write on it.  Decorated it all and pined it together with a butterfly paper clip and some various embellishments. I believe the tag shape came from here.

This was a candle holder that I purchased at Hobby Lobby on sale half off, it was originally made to hang vertically.  To make a wedding gift,  I took the hardware off the mirror back and turned it horizontal and etched the couple's last name on it, I then added the wedding date and a part of Scripture "Love never fails" to the front and cut the couple's first names out of vinyl in a fancier font and placed it on a diagonal over the etched last name.  The couple seemed happy to have a personalized gift.

This is the card I made for the wedding couple.  I did not upload pictures of each page, but I used the same paper throughout, and then I printed the text I wanted on vellum paper and attached that next to each letter in the free space.  On each page is a Scripture about marriage and my personal sentiment was on the last page, next to the "S". I used various embellishments throughout and cut the butterfly on the front from a file I got free here .  The original tutorial for the card idea is here.  I just added the letters of the last name, using the same principles found in the tutorial, and I added them all to the last page, the "S" page. I will try to come back and upload a couple pictures of the pages so it will be a little more clear. 

The holidays have passed.  Boy was it busy, but it was a great year. The Sunday between Christmas and New Years last year, 2012, we received a call from our older son.  He was very upset, his wife had just told him she thought she was pregnant.  They had talked about names and the prospect of having a baby, and he had gotten in the shower.  When he got out of the shower, she was showing signs of miscarriage.  He called and said that he hadn't wanted to tell us this way, but they thought they were expecting and now might be having a miscarriage.  We decided a trip to the urgent care was in order.  We needed to see what was going on.  Urgent care sent them to the ER, we met them there.  After hours of waiting and testing, the diagnosis was that not only was there a heartbeat, there were two heartbeats.  Our daughter-in-law was carrying twins.  We were all elated.

In August, two healthy bouncing baby boys arrived, she carried them 38 weeks, they weighed 7 pounds 9 ounces, and 7 pounds 12 ounces; and they are gorgeous:)  We cannot express how thankful we are to God to have them here and what a blessing they are to us.

So Christmas this year was very special, we had little blessings to enjoy.  Forty years and one week before Christmas 2013, my mom delivered twin boys, Eric and Derrick; one was still born and the other died a few minutes after delivery.  I was very young at the time, so I didn't understand, and I still don't know if there was any explanation as to what happened to them.  This year, for Christmas, my family had 5 month old twin boys in our home. It has been an emotional roller coaster for my mother.  The delivery was frightening for her, and the first time she held them, she felt like she had waited 40 years to hold those precious boys.
God does truly work in mysterious ways, but we must try to trust in His plan and His purpose.

I did do some projects for Christmas; different night lights for my great nieces and nephews, and a special Elvis one for my friend, who is an Elvis fan.  The ones with the clear lights are a lot easier to read in the photos than the red lights, but in real life they are equally easy to read.  The "frosted" ones, I made a template out of vinyl and placed the template on the glass block, then I ran the glass blocks through a bead blaster to get the heavy frosted look.  The trick is to not lose any vinyl letters in the blaster, which I did on one block, it is missing a letter. There are a few at the bottom that still have the vinyl on them, for those of you who, like me, are creatively challenged and need to see it to grasp it.

 Psalm 139:14 "I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made"

"Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; Save me and I shall be saved, for You are my praise."  Jeremiah 17:14.  This little girl struggles with brittle bone disease, she has had 16 broken bones in her three years of life, so this was a  very special verse just for her.

"Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9b

"I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength." Philippians 4:13

 "Whatever I will become will be what God has chosen for me"  This is a quote by Elvis at some time in his life.  I did a search for his signature, took the signature image into the Silhouette software and did a trace on it, then edited the points until it looked like the original image, and cut the signature out of Vinyl.  For this block I also added a re recordable, push button, sound chip that I purchased here and recorded a 90 second clip of "Kentucky Rain", my friend's favorite Elvis song.  That was really fun to add the sound clip to it, I attached the device to the side of the block and tied piece of black tulle around the outside of the block to cover the device.  Turned out pretty good, the picture is before the black tulle was added.

"God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." 2 Timothy 1:7  (This is the one missing a letter, an "o")

This is the block with the vinyl template attached, before it was put in the bead blaster.

These are the results after it has been blasted and the vinyl removed and the lights added.



"His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace"  Isaiah 9:6b






 Well that is about if or now, I have been making tag cards of late and will try to get a post up with pictures of those soon.

Well it has been a busy few weeks for me.  My younger son got married Saturday.  The few days before the wedding were busy days.  I attempted to use the Silhouette Cameo to make a card for the wedding shower, but two nights in a row, all I made was trash.  I still don't know what happened.  I was attempting to cut letters out of card stock, with the intention of placing a contrasting color of card stock behind it, but for some reason I could never cut the letters out smoothly.  The "s" would not cut at all.  I am wondering if maybe it was just the font I was trying to use.  At any rate, I decided to try one more time, with a completely different idea and finally, mere hours before the shower, I was successful.

I even made a little box like envelope to go with the card. 

I cut the brown card stock for the gate fold card and welded the groom's name to the, what would be the bottom of the top flap and the ampersand as well. I then cut the bride's name out of the same dark card stock, but I welded a small rectangle through it, to hold the letters together, didn't worry much about how it looked as I was going to put the lighter color letters on top.  I cut the date out of the dark card stock, individual numbers.  I then cut individual letters and numbers a bit smaller from the light brown patterned paper and carefully glued them to the dark brown matching areas.  I had to use tweezers to accomplish this.  I offset the lighter letters on top of the darker ones, to give a shadow affect.  For the inside I used a piece of off white card stock and a  copper color silhouette sketch pen, to write my sentiment on the inside, and cut it with a scallop around the edges and glued it to the inside middle. I embellished with some brown and off white tiny roses and some wedding layered stickers.  I just made up the envelope pattern as I went and cut it with scissors since I didn't have a pattern.  Placed the card in the box envelope and tied it with a piece of black tulle, it would have looked better if I had had a piece of brown or off white, but I didn't, so I used black.

I also made the bride's maid gifts and the groomsmen gifts.  They consisted of nice shaped jars with the names of each of the attendant's names on one side and the wedding date on the other.  The bride placed fancy scarves in her jars and the groom put tobacco in his jars.

You can see for the girl's jars, I only had a two inch by two inch square to work with.  This presented a challenge with the longest name.  So I chose a font that was rather skinny and tall to begin with, as I thought it looked best in that small space.  For both of these I used the bead blast cabinet to accomplish the etched affect, as opposed to etching cream.  The bead blaster makes a deeper etch. To do the bead blaster though, you have to cover the entire surface of the object to protect it from over spray; and not everyone has access to a bead blast cabinet.

The happy couple had chosen a lantern theme for their big day.  And I had something special I wanted to make for my son.  So I chose a pretty shaped lantern for the project.  We had a dear friend of our family, killed in a car wreck nearly 6 years ago now.  She was 24 years old at the time of the accident; and had spent a good amount of time in our home.  She would impulsively scribble a note on whatever was at hand.  She had written a note on a very small piece of paper, and stuck it in the trim on our stairs, where it still is to this day.  My son has told me through the years that is his note.  So for his wedding I bought a lantern at Hobby Lobby and etched the note on the glass of the lantern.  But the really personal part was, I took the note she had written and scanned it, used the trace feature in Studio to trace it and make it into an SVG file.  It takes a long time to adjust the points to smooth out the writing, but it was worth it.  I then took my SVG file of her handwriting, and cut it in vinyl, and weeded the letters out, leaving the negative space, and etched her note onto the lantern, in her own handwriting.  It was very special to my son and sat on the head table for the reception.

I know it is hard to read in the photo, but it says, "smile b/c (because) God loves you", with a smiley face.  On the other side it says "Have a great day" with her signature. 

We all need that reminder sometimes, that God loves us.  ^"The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance."  1 Peter 3:9

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" John 3:16

God is merciful and longsuffering, two things I certainly need in my life.  But God loves each person and desires that each person would come to repentance and faith.  Mercy is God withholding what we deserve, punishment and hell.  Grace is God giving us what we don't deserve, Love, Salvation, Heaven, eternal peace, etc.  I am so thankful for both Grace and Mercy.  In Paul's letters he often opened with "Grace and Peace to you", you can't have peace if you don't have Grace.  Thank you Lord for Your Grace and Your Mercy, which allows You to forgive me daily.

Well it's been a little while since I have posted.  But I have been working on a couple of Silhouette Cameo projects that I will share today.

First is a square vase/candy dish.  Not positive what it is supposed to be used for, but you could use it for either.  It will be a wedding gift for a friend.  I etched all four sides of the vase, one side I put a monogram with the bride and groom's first name above it, and the last name below it.  On the the second side, I put the wedding date.  The third and fourth sides each have a part of a phrase that was on the wedding invitation.
 

 I am planning on filling the dish with Hershey kisses before giving it to the happy couple.

I made a template out of vinyl using the Silhouette Cameo, and weeded the letters, keeping the negative space, I applied the vinyl to the vase using transfer tape and then I covered any remaining exposed glass with painter's tape to protect it.  I then used a bead blaster on the glass to to etch it.  You could use an etching cream, it makes a more subtle etch.  I use the cream on more fragile items.

That task completed I then started on the card.  I wanted to make something personal, but I was running out of time, so I needed to do something I was fairly confident would work.  So I opted for a word card, using the word LOVE.  As I contemplated how to embellish the card, I knew I wanted to use parts of 1 Corinthians chapter 13, sometimes called the love chapter.  This chapter applies not only to married couples, but to all Christians interacting with people.  So this is what I came up with.

 We should all be willing to "bear with" someone, to forgive and to receive forgiveness.

We are quick to assume the worst of someone, we need to believe in people, and we need to be the kind of person that others can believe the best of and not be disappointed.

 

 This is the the 7th verse of 1 Corinthians 13.  It is speaking of love or charity, and the 7th verse says bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  There is lots of other great stuff in the first 6 verses, but I couldn't put it all in a card, so I had to choose just a part.  I added the other text, because sometimes we hear something so many times, it is familiar, we can repeat it word for word, but we never let the deep truths of those words sink in, so I just added a little commentary to remind us of the truth of the verse.  I wish I added the 8th verse, "Love never fails".

I used a tutorial from here to figure out how to make a word card, I modified it a little for myself. I first cut the card pieces from a cereal box, sorry, I forget where I got that tip.  I used the setting for coverstock, but I set my blade depth to "9" to cut the cereal box.  I then did a print and cut, added the words, printed out the same card pieces on white card stock and cut them.  Then I cut the letters only out of black cardstock, using the textured cardstock setting and a blade depth of "4". Using a spray adhesive, I glue it all together, use a hole punch to punch two holes in the left edge and run a piece of tulle through the holes and tie it in a nice bow to hold it all together.  I used embellishments from K&Company: classic wedding & handsome groom dimensional stickers. I don't know what fonts I used, as they are not loaded on this computer, so I just have a ho hum font on the SVG file on this computer.

All in all I am happy with my creations for the wedding gift and card.  If anyone has any questions feel free to leave them in the comments, and if anyone wants the SVG file for the card leave that request in the comment sections as well.

Have a wonderful day and I hope you all have someone in your life that helps you to hope, believe and endure!

The Malinois and Romans 6:1

The Malinois will be a year old this week.  He has elbow dysplasia, which is very disappointing.  For those who are not familiar with the breed, they are very energetic, protective, agile, athletic, and fearless.  The breed was originally bread in Belgium as a herding dog.  Here in the US, they are used in the military, as police dogs and as protection dogs; they can run agility as well as any border collie, and are persistent. They are very sharp, learn fast, are eager to please and are not afraid to try anything. If you are interested, do a quick you tube search and you will see them parachuting or rappelling from helicopters with their handlers, bomb sniffing, chasing and apprehending criminals, climbing fences, climbing up in trees, jumping on top of cars or climbing the sides of box trailers.  When they are given a job, nothing can deter them from that job. One serving in the military was shot in the chest while apprehending a suspect, and when his handler arrived, he was still holding onto and subduing the suspect.

My Malinois is completely fearless, I have found nothing yet that he will back up from.  I had begun to train him, then he started showing signs of the elbow dysplasia, so we had to slow our training.  Now we just play a lot.  He sits, downs, stays, spins, high fives, shakes, rolls over, settles (play dead) and is trying to learn to back up and crawl, and we practice tracking sometimes.  We walk several times a week and we practice his obedience while we walk.  He can heel, but doesn't do it well.  And he would chew the tires off of a car.  Inflicts damage like you would imagine an alligator would.

So while out walking and attempting some training, this Scripture came to me, "What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply?" Romans 6:1 HCSV. For those of you who know something about dog training, and I don't know much, but you try to correct bad behavior by replacing it with good behavior. So when I see the Malinois running toward me with that look that says, "I am going to grab you by the ankle because I don't want you to go that direction," then I immediately ask him for a sit or a down. If he complies quickly, he then receives a treat. If he jumps up on the furniture, I tell him "off", if he quickly complies, he gets a treat. Well for some people that looks like he might think, well if I do something I know I am not supposed to, I will get corrected, then I get treat, so I will just do bad things and receive treats. Dogs can't make those connections. He will not do bad things in order to get corrected and then get a treat. For him the treat is for the last action he did, ie the off or the sit. But humans however can make those connections, and what Paul is saying in that verse is, we shouldn't continue to sin, just so God can extend His grace to us. That does not magnify nor glorify God. That is someone trying to justify their worldly actions. We are told to live a life that will bring glory to God. We are to look and act different from the world. That line of thinking, I should sin so God can exercise His grace to me, is akin to "tempting" God, which are instructed NOT to do. We believe that the dog might think that way, because we can think that way; so don't think the way you believe a dog does. Dogs are a wonderful creation of God, but to humans He gave the gift of reasoning, so let's reason like a human, and seek to glorify God in our lives. Not try to find a way to justify our unChistian actions. (I just invented that word, unChristian)


That's it for this post, I hope it made some sense to someone.

Okay I am new to blogging, but decided today was the day to start one.  I have no idea how often it will happen but hopefully regularly.  You can tell from the title, I plan on sharing my Christian faith here, so if that offends you, feel free to move on.  I also have a Silhouette Cameo, and I would like to share my projects here and maybe even some files.  I have a Belgian Malinois that takes up a good part of my life, he is more than energetic, athletic, busy etc.  He will be year old this week. I am married, for 27 years, have two grown sons and I have have newborn grandbabies, twin boys, my first.  They are so fun. My mom has multiple myeloma and breast cancer, so there will also be those sorts of posts here.  I hope you find something to enjoy as I expand.  Thanks for reading.