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.