Kellso Collage

Christmas Time is Here!?!

Well, not quite, but it’s not exactly far away, is it?  Perhaps that’s what makes Halloween so spooky….

Here are the projects I submitted for this months Mystic Paper Design team.  First, a Christmas collage made from a hinged frame I bought at the dollar store ages ago-

I painted and distressed the frame, and lined the inside of the frame with the ribbon I’d been given in my DT kit.  The collage is an assortment of papers from The Girls Paperie, from their Tinsel and Twig collection.  On top of the glass I did a transfer technique using contact paper and the Christmas Story from Luke 2-the words are a translucent shadow over the collage!

The Scrapbook page I put together displays my FAVORITE picture from Christmas last year- Eden putting her arm around Gabbi in the midst of Christmas chaos.  It is such a sweet moment between 2 cousins who we hope will be lifelong friends!  I printed the picture from my computer, than dipped the paper in melted wax, giving it an ethereal, antique look.  I used the crepe paper, ribbon, and some leftover fabric to make the rosettes, as well as the Jenni Bowlin Bingo card as the title.  I had so much fun making this, and with the coordinating paper, everything came together so smoothly!  And, yes, as you can see along the bottom I cut and used the ledger paper to make a journaling scroll-  Nothing went to waste!

October Design Team!!!

Well, the holiday season has officially arrived, and with it come beautiful new papers and goodies to explore at Mystic Paper!  After giving us the month of September off as we eagerly awaited the arrival of Christmas paper, we are back in full force this month!  Make sure to visit Shari’s page to see her (already finished!) Christmas book, and Holly will be ready to show off her Halloween papers any time!  I was given 4 beautiful papers from The Girls Paperie Tinsel and Twigs line, along with a Jenni Bowlin Bingo card, some ribbon and vintage crepe paper to play with.  One problem:  I know 2-sided papers are a great deal and, when cutting them up, (which I often do) provide a lot of bang for your buck… but what happens when you fall in love with BOTH sides of the  paper?  Like the ledger paper against the snowflake pattern-I don’t want to leave any of the patterns out!  Yes, it’s silly, I know, but would YOU cut up the ledger paper?  Yeah, me neither.

Hoarders…

Have you ever seen the TV show Hoarders?  Facebook has been all ‘abuzz’ about it for the last couple of weeks, so I assume that a new season is now airing on cable.  I have not watched it recently, but I have watched it in the past, and I would recommend, if you have an opportunity, that you watch an episode.  This show is sad, captivating, fascinating, and horrifying all at once, and I’ve been wanting to write a blog post about it for a long time…

Each episode of Hoarders follows the story of 2 people, often from different backgrounds and walks of life, who are both struggling with hoarding.  Hoarding is defined as the excessive acquisition of possessions (and failure to use or discard them) even if the items are worthless, hazardous, or unsanitary.  Whether through inheritance, compulsive shopping, foraging, or simply failing to throw things away, the lives of these men and women are being completely overrun by things, to the detriment of their homes, families, and selves.

Like every one of these semi-voyeuristic shows, the temptation is there to watch, jaw on the floor, and ultimately walk away thinking of a few junk drawers/cabinets/rooms in our homes and say ‘Well, at least I’m not THAT bad!’.  Or, if ‘a place for everything’ is more your way of life, walk away simply in shock and misunderstanding.  Fair enough.  However, there is something about this show that just gets under my skin (and I don’t mean the creepy feeling I get from seeing a mummified cat in someone’s living room):  This show, and the people and homes it profiles, is a perfect picture of sin and the human heart, and THAT is what I find so fascinating.

None of these people moved into their homes to find it cram-jammed to the ceiling with purses or old newspapers.  Perhaps after a few years, or in little time at all, they had a closet or a room that was full of “that stuff”, the stuff that was just too (tiring, emotional, big, messy, embarassing) much to deal with.  Simply close the door, and it’s almost like it’s not there.  But, as we all know, ignoring a problem does not make it go away.  Instead of taking a good hard look at that area, or asking anyone else for help, the problem grows.  A few more shopping trips or Christmases or births or deaths pass, and that problem goes from one corner of your home to “No one has been in my house for nearly 10 years”.

How does this compare to matters of the heart?  In every way!  Jeremiah 17:9 tells us :  The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked- Who can know it? Our hearts are so inclined to evil and rebellion, that we ourselves can not be aware of it!  Looking at the way some people physically live, we can’t understand how they can even get out of bed in the morning (assuming they could even find it the night before!).  And yet, they go about their lives almost as if they don’t notice it!  It is still ultimately their home, and their version of comfort adapts to their environment!  On the rare  occasion they do invite someone into their home, you will often see them brushing the mess aside, making excuses, squeezing through passageways, casually leaning against a tower of pizza boxes.  Their denial is such that they assume they can put a mask over a problem as plain as the nose on their face!  And yet, if the obvious is stated, more often than not, that friend or family member will begin to be pushed out of the hoarders’ life.  There is, you see, no room.

We are all this way.  We come into this world with our own sins;  we are solely responsible for them.  At first they may seem quirky or cute, but like so many pets, over time they are guaranteed to take on a life and personality all their own, and it is never pretty.  Eventually they will creep into other areas of our lives, though we may try to deny it.  Denial and defensiveness are inevitable if others start poking their nose into places never meant to be seen, so over time we will find ourselves drawing closer to those who share our ‘quirks’, or drawing away from people altogether.  And, unless an outside force moves, our situation is completely hopeless.

And yet, at the time we feel most alone and hidden (even in a perfectly clean house, even surrounded by people), our hearts, so full of dirty, rotten ugliness that even we can’t be sure what is inside, can be known, and be cleaned!  (Acts 15:8 and 9)

There is hope for every Hoarder!

*

Time to reflect…

The Mystic Paper design team has been given the month of September off, in order to wait for all the Christmas goodies to come in.  (In other words, I will be working on Christmas projects in October!  Yikes!)

In the meantime, I have whiled away the extra hours this month with numerous commitments, all enjoyable, yet undeniably chaotic!  There is no doubt we are in a busy season of our lives, and I’m trying to do more than just hang on for the ride:  I desire to not just live in and treasure every moment, but avoid the attitude of ‘looking ahead’ to (what? The next season of life that might be different but will most likely just be busy in a different way?) the future.  You know what they say- “Today is a gift, that’s why they call it the present!”  But of course, that’s stupid!  It’s called a homonym, people!

But, I digress.

First Mini Book- Birds and Birdcages

I have completed my first mini book challenge for my MBA Design Team.  The theme for this month (for half the team) was Birds and Birdcages.  You can see everyones creations at

Mini Books Anonymous!!!

Here are photos of my book in detail:I am admittedly not a bird person, but I fell in love with this project.  I found much of my inspiration from Matthew 6:25-34:

²⁵“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life^[a]?

²⁸“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³²For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.³³But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

As well as the words to the hymn ‘His Eye is on the Sparrow’:

Why should I feel discouraged

Why should the shadows come

Why should my heart be lonely

And long for heavenly home

When Jesus is my portion?

My constant friend is He

His eye is on the sparrow

And I know he watches me

His eye is on the sparrow

And I know He watches me

I am very proud of the way this turned out, but most of all I love where my mind was focused the entire time I was working on this book – On Gods constant care and provision!

A very girlie D.T. project!

I knew right away what direction I had to take once I saw this paper from Melissa Frances.  It is ultra feminine, and beautiful.  Without hesitation, I pulled out Eden’s hospital picture, and got to work.  With so many soft patterns and colors, I decided to make the page look like a quilt.  Here’s the technique I used:  I cut the paper into squares to form the ‘quilt’-  Each square was 4×4 inches to cover a 12×12 sheet of scrapbook paper with 3 rows and 3 columns.  I sprayed each square with water, and gently crumpled the paper to give it a well-worn fabric look.  After highlighting the wrinkles with Bundled Sage Distress Ink, I glued the squares down onto a larger piece of paper, fixing the lace edging in place as well.  I did some stitching along the edges of the squares to ‘quilt’ them in place, and I made this process go much more quickly by pre-punching the holes and then just following the holes as I sewed.

All the lace, from the flower to the edges of the page, are from an old shirt I was ready to part with.  But, I couldn’t let the lace go without putting it to some good use!  The flower was inspired by another online tutorial, and it was so simple-  just cut circles out of the fabric in varying sizes, and singe the edges!  My flower is a bit over-singed, but I was happy with the results.

I also put together a quick mini book to give the Melissa Francis products more of a chance to shine.  The pictures doesn’t show the fun scalloped edges from one of the papers I received, but I wanted to put every piece of the material to good use!   All of the papers and embellishments are available at Mystic Paper!  All the hard work of the Design Team is on display, as well-don’t miss checking out Holly and Sheri’s blogs to see their Melissa Francis projects from this month.

Today is the perfect day to update my blog with this project, because Eden’s newborn picture was taken exactly 3 years ago-  Today is her birthday, and we are so glad we have this girlie girl in our family!   Happy Birthday, Eden!

Two first days…

This was a week of big events as Noah started Kindergarten at Crossroads Christian School, and (the next day)  Jonathan began his 4th year (3rd grade) at CEE.  I was a little emotional going into Noah’s first day, but my primary concern was for my 2 boys.  Noah listed his #1 apprehension as being afraid he would cry at school like last year.  I reminded him that he learned to love school last year!  However, you’ll notice I said my 2 boys:  The day before school started, Jonathan started getting emotional because it would be the first time (for one 1/2 day) that he would be home without Noah.  Or, as he put it “I won’t get to play Lego’s with Noah anymore!”  I assured him that he would, indeed have more opportunities to play Legos with Noah-  ”Well, not as much!”  Jonathan sobbed.   ‘Dude,’ I was thinking to myself all that day, ‘If you start crying when we drop Noah off, I’m going down.  Hard.  And it will not be pretty.’  Thankfully, both Jonathan, Noah, and I managed to keep it together.

Noah’s school is a hybrid of 3 days a week in school, and 2 days teacher planned Home Schooling, or HBL (home based learning).  I am getting really excited as I get more comfortable with the idea, and more and more I am certain that God provided just the right solution for Noah’s kindergarten year.

Jonathan was, of course, an old pro by the time his 1st day rolled around.  His teacher (Mrs. Quinn) seems really sweet, and a few of his close friends as well as several familiar faces, are in his class this year.  Jonathan was not interested in my taking the camera to school- way too embarassing!  BUT- I did see his best friend, Tristan’s, dad PEEK around the doorway of their classroom to take a stealth 1st day picture.  Very sneaky, Mr. Duggar!  And diabolically brilliant.

Jonathan is being ‘bumped’ up to 4th grade math this year, his math scores last year proved he was more than ready!  It should be a great year!

1 Corinthians 13:12

Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

Congratulations, Abdi!

August DT

For this month’s DT project for Mystic Paper, each of us girls were given papers and product from Melissa Francis.  They were so beautiful and easy to use!  The papers are so ruffly and feminine, I could think of only one direction to take this project, To Be Revealed, soon!  Make sure to check in on Shari and Holly (who got the Kitschy Kitchen collection, sniff, sniff, boo!) to see their goodies for the month!

Five years ago…