Attention Queen Bees

On Saturday I was at the store with the "crazy" ladies that stayed overnight during our 24hr Scrap Pink Crop and I met a "Queen Bee". If you are not familiar with the Queen Bees, they are a group of women that love scrapbooking and they have formed a "club". They are very easy to spot because they have all sorts of things with bees on them. Everything from shirts to hair pins... they have it ALL. All, except my bee... :)

As you have probably already noticed, I absolutely love paper piecing! For the longest time I used to buy images online to make my own patterns, but recently I had a TERRIBLE experience with the owner of the website I used to buy my images from. Since that incident, I have decided to no longer purchase anything there.

For the first time I took the initiative to create not only the pattern, but the original image. I must admit that I am not an artist, and that I cannot draw for the life of me. Yet, if I make my drawings in pieces, the way that I would make a pattern, I figured today it is not as bad.

I dry embossed the wings to give them a bit more detail and I added a gold trim with goldrite.

I also placed a pop-dot under the crown so that it would give the effect that indeed the bee was wearing the crown.

I was tempted to Stickle the bee itself, but then I thought it would be a distraction away from the crown.

So there you have it! My very first embellishment made with a drawing of my own... :) This is just another example of how we can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens us! I am convinced that if I am not in constant communication with the Lord while I make my embellies, I am completely incapable of completing anything!

Thank you Jesus!!

Love in Christ,

Nana

PS: I hope the Queen Bees like my bee because all 15 of them are getting one just like it. :)

Grunge Christmas

I am so excited that today is Tuesday! I am finally able to post the Christmas card I made using this sketch from Inspirational Card Sketches:
At the beginning I was not sure what to make of it, but I am very happy with the result. When I went to CHA and took Tim Holtz' class I fell in love with the whole distress movement, so this was the perfect avenue to put my skills to the test. Here is what I made:I used the Grungeboard pieces and the Distress inks and Stickles to make the snowman and reindeer. I also used the paint dabber and the metal numbers are from Ranger. The Patterned paper is DCWV and the cardstock is Bazzill.

Here is a closer look at some details:
I hope you liked it! :)

Love in Christ,

Nana

The Red Mustang

I had promised my great friend Esther a red mustang so that she could complete the most adorable layout about her grandson having a fit over a red mustang he could not find. This is the car I made for her today:
To make it, all I used was Bazzill cardstock and vellum. I also chalked the edges to give it a bit of dimension and used a journaling pen to draw some detail.

I pray that Esther will like it... :) I was so excited about having finished that I did not want to go to bed without posting it so that she can see it before I am able to give it to her.

Love in Christ,

Nana

If the Shoe Fits...

I absolutely love my husband and the children the Lord has blessed us with. I try my very best to teach them and guide them in the ways of the Lord, but it is always the Lord the one that teaches me through them.

After we got out of church today, we came home and spent some time as a family just doing all sorts of silly things. The kids were laughing, Freddy and I were laughing... just the type of day you wish you could always have.

Lately Noelani has been very curious about shoes and always tries to wear mine... So, Freddy decided to put her into his shoes (which are very heavy) to see what she would do. Here she is:
At the beginning she was very excited to be in these shoes. She smiled and clapped. She then tried to walk, and the shoes were not cooperating with her... Then it was not as fun. She got down to look at her shoes, almost asking: "What is wrong with these?".
and then she looked up...
As I look at the pictures I can only be reminded of the story of David and Goliath in the Bible. Before David goes out to fight Goliath, the King offers David his armor, and David agrees to use it. But, when he tries to swing his sword, he is unable to because the armor is too big on Him. He then decides to trust that God would deliver him, so he goes out with just a sling and a stone.

Oh, how I wonder how many shoes I have tried to wear to accomplish different things in my life. I wonder if I, like David, would be willing to look up and trust that the Lord would enable me to accomplish what He wants me to do without me having to wear somebody else's shoe.

Noelani just raised her little arms while looking at me and asked me to get her out of those heavy shoes, and so I did! May you and I have the courage to look at our shoes and see if they are the one's that fit... if they are not, may we dare to raise our eyes to Him who can take us out and place us in the one's He knows that fit.

Love in Christ,

Nana

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." (2 Coritnthians 5:17)

The Fight Against Breast Cancer

(I wrote this at 2:30AM, but my computer crashed.)

As some of you may know, we had our very first Scrap Pink 24hr crop. I had a blast closing the store tonight. There were a few of the ladies that actually DID stay UP ALL night scrappin!! I was in absolute shock! LOL

It is always such a sweet time to be amongst women that are very like-minded. I have been so blessed by the Lord with the new friendships I have been able to develop since the opening of the store. They have different of personalities, but that is the very thing that makes them all so very special.

Just as I was writing this post, my daughter woke up crying and wanted to be carried. I normally just let her cry out for a bit and she stops to then fall asleep on her own. Well, tonight it was not so. Her crying kept getting louder and louder...'til it caught my attention.

I went into her room (with Giancarlo in hand because he, too, woke up) and I got her out of her crib and rocked her for a bit. I gave her a bit of milk and put her back down. While she was on me she was completely fine! The moment she hit that crib, she began to cry. I prayed with her, and then spoke to her... yet she continued. At the end, all that was left was to speak to her sternly and lo, and behold... she stopped crying! LOL

I know that you are all probably thinking, "What in the world does anything have anything to do with the Breast Cancer Fight?". I might not be able to answer what it has to do with cancer, but I did see a lot of God in it. You see, when we cry out to God, we do not do so in order to get his attention. His attention is already on us. There is no amount of crying I can do that will cause God to love me any more or any less. So from the moment Noelani started crying, the Lord was purposefully all over it.

Then we have the picture of the Father that comes and comforts, yet will not tolerate sin. I, by no means, intend to equate myself to Jesus, but the scenario I just experienced brought about a neat perspective. I know that God can comfort us and love us as much as we need, yet He will not stand where sin abounds. He will always be loving, but stern if He is trying to correct & discipline us.

I have never experienced, personally, any type of cancer, but I have an aunt that died due to Breast Cancer. She fought it to the very end and she remained a "servant" even when she had times she should have been the one being served.

With the vision the Lord just showed me, I now have even more peace because in her pain I am convinced that He comforted her. Whenever she creid, she did not have to scream louder to get His attention... God hears ALL! PRAISE HIM!!!

So, since Breast Cancer is something that has touched me deeply I created the Pink LO which will be a class offered in October. Five dollars out of every person that signs up for this class will be donated towards Breast Cancer research.

The paper piecing bears I made using Lisa's Precious Piecing Patterns. Make sure you check out her website here!

Here is a closeup of both bears:
Since I was in a hurry to finish the layout, I did not get to finish adding the details, so please be gentle with your comments... :)

Thanks for reading!

Love in Christ,

Nana

"Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. ” (2 Corinthians 3:1-2)

I am a Guest Designer! :)

I was chosen by Dawn to be the guest designer to her challenge blog. If you have never visited Dawn's Inspirational Card Sketches blog, you are missing out!! She posts the most inspirational sketches that will pretty much inspire anybody! :) I am not a card person, and her sketches keep getting the best of me. For this week she had posted the following sketch:
This is the card I made using the sketch:I actually made the little ladybug by copying the print from the My Little Shoebox paper.

Here are the materials I used to create this card:
Bling: Kaisercraft Pearls and Rhinestones
Cardstock, Ribbon, and Brads: Bo Bunny
Flowers: Prima
Patterned Paper: My Little Shoebox

I also created a grunge Christmas card with another sketch she will be posting on Tuesday! Here is just a tiny glimpse of what is in it:
Make sure you check back in to see the entire card.

Love in Christ,

Nana

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. " (1 John 1:9)

Apart from Christ, we can do NOTHING!

Today was one of those days that you wish would never end... Even though it was a very looong day filled with MANY things to do around the house and with the children, it actually was a wonderful day. I can say that for the first time in a very long time I actually felt completely comfortable and at peace with being a housewife & stay-at-home mom. Granted, I did have a lot of things to do for the store, but the kids took two very long naps, and I was able to get those things done during this time.

I woke up (for the third time) around 7am to breastfeed Giancarlo and then decided to start my daily cleaning routine. I had hopes of, at one point, taking a very needed nap, but I never got around to it because there was always something to do. Yet, in the midst of this craziness I got to experience beautiful moments with my kids.

When Noelani woke up I was in the middle of mopping the floors. I put a basket of toys into her crib so that she would have something to entertain herself with while I finished. When I went to get her out of her crib, this is how I found her:LOL!!! She purposefully took all the toys out of the basket so that she could sit IN it! I asked her: "Donde esta Jesus?" (Where is Jesus?), and this is what she did:I can't wait for the day that instead of pointing towards Heaven, she would point straight into her heart! (Lord, please have mercy on both my children! May they both grow up with a passionate love towrds you. May you be all they care about. May you be the only one they desire to please, for I know that by having these desires, they will in turn be satisfied and made whole.)

As the day progressed, we got to spend some time playing with Giancarlo as well.

He was grabbing the little sheet in front of him and he suckled it. His feet barely reach the floor of the gym, yet it seems to me that he was pretty happy there.
Noleani joined in on the fun:
After we played, I put together a little gym for Giancarlo to play in. Noelani decided that it was another perfect place to make her little self fit into...While in there, she decided to kiss the bug:
Noelani kisses just about anything! She walks around the house blowing kissed at the walls, kissing the sofa along with anything else that comes in her way. Even when she realizes that I am mad at something she has done, she will quickly kiss me, as if to say: I'm sorry mom!

The Bible says that we should come to the Throne of God boldly, and that we need to be like little children in order to inherit the Kingdom. Now that I am a mother I can understand how the Lord would desire that we would love Him the way a child would. You see, children are not embarrassed to kiss you and hug you... they do not care about what others might say or think if they dance in a ridiculous manner... they tend to forget what they were reprimanded for and come right back to you with even more love! Children are dependent (FULLY) dependent on their parents in order to survive... All of these are qualities that are necessary in order to please God.

The Bible says that without faith it is impossible to please God. My prayer is that my family, you (my friends), and I would have faith as small as a mustard seed in order to please our God. I desire so much to be like Noelani, who walks around loving in spite of all the wrong that could be around her. I wish I would learn to depend solely on the Lord the way both my children depend on Freddy and I to survive. May the Lord open our eyes to see the reality that apart from Him we can do NOTHING!

Love in Christ,

Nana

"Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."
(1Corinthians 10:31)

Say it with Letters

I have always enjoyed having a challenge, so I ventured to try out to become part of the "Say it with Letters" Design Team. They specialize in creating "custom cut wood letters and shapes available in hundreds of lettering styles and several adorable designs". I am very hopeful and very nervous because I would absolutely fit in with the requirements of the team. As you all have learned, I am ALL about the altering mini-books, or creating my own embellishments through paper piecing. If they were to choose me, I would be able to use ANY paper to alter their AWESOME products... Let me show you what I have created just for the challenge:
I used My Mind's Eye Breaking Free paper and rub-ons. I also used Prima Flowers, Bazzill Brads, Tim Holtz grunge, Distress Inks, Distress Stickles, amongst other things.

I also created a mini-coaster album using the Bo Bunny Flutter By Collection. Some of you have seen this one at the store and have asked about it. The reason ehy it is not at the store is because I brought it home to take pictures for this try-out... :) Here are the pics:
These projects were so much fun to create. I am praying that I would get a chance... I will post more pics tomorrow of those pages that are my favorite.

Love in Christ,

Nana

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 Johm 1:9)

Exhausted!!

Well, today was a pretty looong day. I spent the entire day hoping I would get to scrap a bit & it was not until about 10 PM that I even had the opportunity to think about actually sitting to scrap. I literally just finished working on a mini-album that I am altering. Due to the time and my need to go to bed, I did not take pictures. Tomorrow though, I will be posting pictures of two projects I intend to use to try out for a DT. :)

I get to do my best work when I am trying out for something, so I constantly look for things to try out in order to make the projects I have in mind. I hope to be able to make a couple of more paper piecing embellishments (which from now on I will refer to as "pieces") and to post those as well.

On another note, Giancarlo flipped from his belly to his back for the very FIRST time today. (I will be sharing the pictures Freddy took of him tomorrow as well. ) I cannot believe that it has been almost 5 months since he was born. TIME FLIES!!! I guess that is the very reason why I find scrapbooking to be an essential tool in documenting one's life. There are way too many miracles occurring on a daily basis to not take note of them.

My biggest desire is that of being able to paint my children's lives through the eyes of the Lord, so that they will come to know Him fully and would live passionately for Him. Maybe I need to make that a priority, since I do not do enough of that. I see the days come and go and I am still not even done with Noelani's Birth album... LOL

May the Lord help me focus my attention on what is important.. That I would learn to do as He requests of us: "And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him." (Colossians 3:17)

Love in Christ,

Nana

Monsters... :)

I think that monsters can be so cute... I came across these monsters while looking in the scrappindoodles website and I just had to buy them.

Paper piecing has become such a fun thing to do that now I see an image and my brain immediately dissects it into the appropriate pieces that I would need in order to make my patterns. Since I said that I would post a creation a day, here are my two monsters:
I know that this is not the best picture but I did not want to go to bed without sharing what I had done. :) I guess I can take better pictures tomorrow in the daylight and come back to change them... in the meantime, I introduce to you to my version of Cheryl Seslar's Silly Monsters.

My next project is to finish creating the monster images that I bought and to find a mustang image that I can replicate in paper. I promised my good friend Esther a mustang for the cutest layout about her grandson and his cars. The moment I get that done, I will share it with all of you. :)

Thanks for looking!

Love in Christ,

Nana

"And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." (Matthew 10:28)

Bo Bunny try-out work...

It has been a while since I share my work. I recently created some projects to try out for the Bo Bunny design team and I wanted to display them here. Let me know what you think of them. :)
I created this card using Bo Bunny's Alissa line and their Double Dot Paper. The pattern for the bear I got from Precious Piecings by Lisa.


This layout was made using the Calypso line and the pattern from Precious Piecings by Lisa.

If you follow the store's blog, you have already seen this layout. This was my very first attempt at stitching. I tried using my mother's sewing machine and the thread kept breaking. I ended up using the machine to poke the holes through my cardstock and then stitching by hand. LOL I had a lot of fun with this one, and it means the world to me. Check out this post to learn more about this layout.

Last but not least, I created a mini-album to feature the pictures from when Freddy surprised me by taking me to Butterfly World. If you know anything at all about me, you would know that I am absolutely obsessed with butterflies. The butterfly from the store's logo was actually taken from a picture Freddy took of a butterfly the very first time he took me to Butterfly World. Here is the original pic:Here is the mini-album and the pages and tags that go along with it:

Thanks for looking!

Love in Christ,

Nana

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." (2 Corinthians 5:17)

New Direction

I have decided to get active again in my personal blog. It is a bit strange to come back here, since I spend everyday at the store's blog. I want to be able to have a place, though, where I can post the different things I create. I have been interested in creating paper piecing embellishments and pre-made pages for a while now. With a marvelous husband, two kids, a house to keep up with, and a store to run it seems impossible at times to complete anything. LOL Even so, I will be coming here to not only showcase the projects I do create, but also just to write a bit.

I have always loved to write. Ever since I can remember my escape has always been done through writing. I have a diary that I began for both my children the day I found out I was pregnant with them, and since Giancarlo was born I have to admit that the journaling has stopped. I guess I can do some of that through here... or maybe I should open a blog just for them. Nonetheless, I just want to write.

Today my mom went back to Puerto Rico, after 4 months of being here helping me. I know that she is still alive and that she will be back to visit, but I feel her absence more than usual. Maybe it is the fact that I am a mom of two & I have a better grasp of what she must have gone through; maybe it is just that she is and always will be my mommy... Whatever the reason, I truly miss her.

My mom has always been my biggest fan. Whatever I have dreamed of, my mom has pushed me towards, and has made me feel as though I am invincible. When I began to scrapbook, she was right there cheering me on. The simplest cards or layouts I created were and still are like trophies to her. Recently I told her about my desire of creating paper piecing embellishments using images that I purchase online as my guide and she was all for it. Here is a picture she took of my recent creation:

This is the image I used to create my paper piecing pattern:
I bought this image in www.scrappindoodle.com and the artist's name is Cheryl Seslar. I will continue to create many other embellishments using images or even patterns that I purchase online. My goal is to be able to create a piece a day. Hopefully some of you can keep me accountable... If you happen to like any of the pieces I create and/or are interested in getting them, please let me know.

Love in Christ,

Nana

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him would have eternal life." (John 3:16)