God is faithful!

I have to end this year with a testimony of God's faithfulness.

I hope it will serve as an encouragement to all those who pray for their children to enter into the Kingdom of God. This year our eldest son Rodney (22 years) came to the end of himself and opened up his heart to find out that His Heavenly Father had been on the look-out for him all the time!

Does this remind you of the story of the Prodigal Son.... when he came to the end of himself and sat with the pigs to get something to eat, only then he decided to return to his father.
It is a story of many broken lives - something has to bring us to our knees to be desperate enough to open our hearts to the Love of the Father, which was shown to us when Jesus died on the Cross to bring us back to God. God's arms are still open wide today.

When Rodney was four, we moved from Holland to the Mission fields in the South of France never ever knowing that it would be a sacrifice of such enormous proportions for all of us. We had two other sons at the time, David, who has Down Syndrome and goes to a special school where he is loved, and Joël who is now 18. Michaël was born in France. We knew little about the culture, the coldness of local folk against 'strangers', not to mention the hostility against Christianity.
Rodney had a hard time at school, as did our other children, because he was different, because we, as a family believed in a living God.
But when he was a teenager and went to college he vowed never to be bullied again. 'God' was the reason he was bullied so now he did everything against God to be accepted. If we would have known how far he went we would have been worried sick. Somehow we were spared.

He left home when he was 17, but never seemed to succeed in life, how desperately he wanted to be independent, to have a family of his own, to have a reasonable job and just live his life. But it never went that way. He went down the wrong path and ended up in total darkness, depressed with no way out.

In the mean time, although our other two boys didn't have an easy time at school, they chose to follow Jesus when they were 16 and are still serious, God fearing boys today. But Rodney was different.....

We have prayed for years and years for God to touch his heart. It has been a long road and we suffered seeing him as he was. At times we were so terribly discouraged....it took so long.

We may think that our prayers brought our son back to God but it was the witness of the Holy Spirit that spoke deep in his heart and the awesome faithfulness of God that touched him in his time of need. The seed of the Word of God that was planted in his heart from his infant years never ever left him.

He has a way to go, but TODAY he is a transformed young man with a smile on his face and a goal in life!

Just recently he was asked this question: "What is your image of an ideal father?

This is what Rodney wrote:  I have always known that I have the ideal father, its only now that I know God that I truly realize that I see the image of my Heavenly Father in my natural father because the only thing that my natural father wants is to be like his Heavenly Father!

I don't think that a father could receive a bigger compliment than that!

We thank God that we are united as a whole family today and our shared passion is to be there where we can serve Him in His Projects for this world.

Have a very Happy New Year and thank you to everyone who has been so kind to visit my blog and leave me some love - I live quite isolated so this makes such a huge difference to me. Being creative brings so much extra joy into my world and through it to have contact with ladies throughout the world is such a blessing!

Tag Tuesday - Christmas leftovers

The challenge on Louise's blog this week is as the title announces. As I don't like a mess I tidy up very quickly, need to keep oversight... so I didn't have very much to work with to create a recycled Christmas tag.

I even used the envelope of a card I received this morning which had a strip of gold in it for the underside of the circle. The robin is a strip of Christmas Paper, the two bows were wrapped around a basket of goodies I received, it's some sort of plastic tape. One of the snowflakes was punched out of a bygone Christmas card, and a strip of gold/scarlet was also from a Christmas card - (I only cut into the shop ones to be accurate!)

Another home-made collage stamp

I hope everybody enjoyed their Christmas. I am really enjoying sitting in my craft-room for a little break. DH spoiled me with a better quality camera and I'm really happy with it. This is not for any challenge, just wanted to play around..

 I made this collage stamped image, which I scanned for eventual further use on different patterned papers or even fabric come to that. It makes for a quick card this way and I used a butterfly from the scrap basket. Once the stamping is done and scanned, it's a matter of printing it out, and adhering it to coordinating papers and the card is ready. I could even 3D for the bird, so it has its possibilities too. This stamp using a Bird stamp from Artistic Outpost and two stamps from hero Arts, and the flowers are Anna Griffin.
This will be a little thank-you card to somebody, and I'll stamp a sentiment inside.

Here is another one using black print, made as a quick tag:

Happy Christmas my blogging friends!

May you all enjoy the festive season!

Jesus came into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in Him should stay in darkness.

                                                           John 12:46 NIV

Wishing you an abundance of this Light in your lifes!

Jacqueline

Tag Tuesday - Silver or Gold

tLouise has a lovely theme for the Tag Tuesday challenge going, to use silver or gold on your Christmas Tag.
As time is quite sparing, I made a couple of quick tags, no fussy embellishments etc. which I usually don't use anyway.... but I'm quite happy I made them because all my cards have been sent, but I still need some more.

I used gold embossing - just adhered a little vintage photo over an embossed stamped image from Hero Arts
with this one and the one underneath.

I hope you all succeed with all the preparations for Christmas. Hope to be back at least one more time this week!
Thank you Louise for a year of fun tag challenges, hope we can continue!

Gothic Arches - Snowflakes

I am feeling a lot better - thank you so much for all your well wishes!

Today I wanted to make a Christmas Arch on the theme 'Snowflakes', which was posted two weeks ago on the Gothic Arches blog. I used a Memory Box patterned paper and one of my favorite images which was a download from the Graphic's fairy. All the stamped snowflakes are from Artistic Outpost stamp plate Sleigh Ride that can be found here.

Our sons arrived home safely, just had a slight delay. Lucky for us as there is a lot of chaos everywhere in the North of Europe due to snowfall. I hope to write a little bit about our eldest son later this week - the transformation due to a touch of God in his life is evident! 
God bless!
Jacqueline

Home-made Collage Stamp

Haven't been well the last couple of days with a throat infection, just laid in bed, so boring!
Last night I crept into my room because I got a flash of inspiration while thinking about the new Bird collage stamps from Hero Arts. I thought to myself, I'm going to see if I can make my own as a personal little Christmas stamp, so I did.

After I did the stamping, I scanned it and printed it out on patterned paper and made this tag. This way I can use the image in all sizes and print it out endlessly. I suppose its now a digital stamp!

Stamps used are Robin from Artistic Outpost stamp plate 'Birds of a feather', which can be found here, bird sentiment is Crafty Individuals as well as the postmark, the holly stamp is unknown to me and the script is from Aladin, a French make.

My second card today is one I made last week as I was playing with the Paris Rose ArtPrints stamp from Hero Arts

I might have to adapt this one to Christmas too.
Have a lovely weekend! My two sons are returning home for Christmas from Holland tomorrow, haven't seen them for three months so I hope the weather will remain o.k. for the journey!

Oh yes, I got a very nice Christmas gift from Sue yesterday with Beautiful tags from Melissa Frances, a gorgeous collage stamp, bits and pieces and this beautiful material cone, which I have hung on the Christmas tree. I am totally overwhelmed by the generosity of a lot of American women, I think you lead in the whole world!

Jacqueline

Tag Tuesday - Christmas colors green/brown/yellow

Thank you ladies once again for your lovely comments on my last post, I feel so blessed by them. Yesterday I received the Magazine IRL and was so happy to have a copy.

Another reason to be happy is because Louise is back with her weekly tag challenge! Missed you Louise. It is the one challenge I really look forward to.

Funny thing is, I made this last night and it fits the bill (except for the little touches of pink...).

All I had to do was add something yellow so opted for a flower. This is the first time I'm using a poinsettia stamp that Louise sent to me ages ago and I love it. Why did I discover that so late? So thank you Louise, it works well with collage stamping.

The robin is from Artistic Outpost, stamp plate 'Birds of a Feather which can be found here. The paper is K&Co.

Good things come in Pink!!

Thank you ladies for your lovely reactions to my post on Friday! I can always count on my lovely friend Louise in Chigaco! She has always helped me out when I needed to know something about a publication in an American mag. She found the Somerset Studio Gallery Magazine in Michael's and scanned the page, two cards in one go, wow, never had that happened to me before!

So this is the page. Thank you so much Louise for your kindness, I really appreciate it. Of course, now I remember the cards, but if they had never been published I would have totally forgotten everything about them.
I did happen to find them in the archives of late 2009. The colors seem different in the mag, but I so hope to receive it this week.

Here I used two images from The Graphic's Fairy, added some paper lace and I remember it was early days after receiving the lovely Heart-winged butterfly stamp from Hero Arts. I wish I still had some of that lovely pink Basic Grey paper.

This one was for a challenge sketch from Card patterns using the Heart Flourish from Hero Arts and the Robin script heart from Stampington, again on Basic grey papers.
If you want to see what is in this magazine, click on the badge to your right, it will gives you an idea.

Have a wonderful day
Jacqueline

Christmas blessings

Just sharing a few little treats I received this week.

Look at this beautiful card from NANCY - all the colors I just love packed into a stunning creation with a fabric flower! Thank you Nancy!

Secondly, HELLE from Denmark sent me this little package, with little Tatting butterflies, made by hand that she had learned from her grandmother - isn't that special! Thank you Helle. Her card is gorgeous - she even stitched around one of the Christmas trees!

I used the image Helle sent to make another Christmas card:

That is what I love about the blogging world - the contact with other crafters all over the world and sharing the riches of creativity!
No magazine yet and no news.. I hope Monday.

Published??

Dear ladies,

Apparently I was published in Somerset Studio gallery.... I have not received a copy and have absolutely no idea what they included of mine in their magazine. I received a badge which is on the right to show you which edition it is and if anybody has received it, could you please inform me?  I am excited about it. I hope they send me a copy! I just love the cover!

Thank you so much!
Jacqueline

A little bookmark

This is a little bookmark I made a while ago. It is a recycled label from a pair of jeans one of the boys bought. All I had to do was decorate it. Here is how it works in a book, very handy!

This is the whole tag - of course this model is very easy to copy and make many more, even as little gifts

I think I just gave myself a little idea!

Jacqueline

Just playing

I have been so busy that it was nice just to sit down and play this afternoon with some grid patterns. I really wanted to use the snowflake and the robin squares I had, so I added some other little stamped squares and made these two cards.

It's always handy to have a couple of extra cards for Christmas!

Have a great week!
Jacqueline

Christmas

I have some Christmas shares today. I'm not really focused as I'm so preoccupied at the moment, so I just create as I find the inspiration in what meets the eye.

A little tag, just as good as a card to send.

I loved this image as soon as I saw it. I gave this a bit of shine with clear embossing powder. Used a small piece of music paper which I distressed and once again a piece of silver cardstock, recycled from an old Christmas card.
 

I used a silver sticker strip which I transformed into a frame which really only gets used at Christmas time, but at least it gets a destination!

A grid card

A card using the same image as above. I printed it out on pp to give it a different effect than if its printed on white paper.

The images used for this card are from Artistic Outpost Christmas Plate.

We have a beautiful sunny day today!

A Christmas tag

This was made very quickly as I already had the star in my scrap basket. I made one of these last year with the Basic Grey Christmas papers. The little bird is from Memory Box 'Mistletoe' papers - I just punched out one of them.

I used some silver card to mount it on, recycled from an old Christmas card. It is very easy to make one of these stars yourself with all different little scraps - just cut out a template and cut around it with other papers eight times and you have your own star.

We still haven't had snow yet but I have seen some on the nearby Mountains, so pretty.