Rainbows...

 

Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it

and remember the everlasting covenant between God

and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.

Genesis 9:16

There will always be rain - and often extreme storms - but God has promised us Rainbows afterward - a beautiful reward for having gone through the soggy, wet, cold, uncomfortable times.  My ‘Baby Sister’ has been going through some ‘extreme storms’ and last week, because of some long-awaited - and some other totally unexpected (!) - circumstances, she finally has a Rainbow in her stormy life!  Rainbows have always been her ‘special trademark,’ and so I decided to make a Rainbow Card for her.

I cut a Window Card and the Rainbow and Clouds with my Cricut and SCAL2 from files I’ve had for quite a while.  I ‘restructured’ the Window file a bit to suit my personal design for the card.  I found an image of a Pot online and ‘created and restructured’ it, also, in my SCAL2 program!  I get so excited when I’ve taught myself how to do things - and this I’ve done a number of times - so that I have the shapes I need.  The ‘gold’ in the pot is gems from Recollections.  I made the clouds and grass areas using paper templates I made and inked with little makeup sponges.  I embossed transparent paper for the curtains I designed and made little bow and pearl tiebacks.   I added mini-brads for the door handles.

How has God shown YOU a Rainbow at some time?

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Oasis -

 

Be still, and know that I am God.

Psalm 46:10

Oasis:  a place of peace, safety, or happiness in the midst of trouble or difficulty

I’ve been asked to present a session activity at a day of relaxation and refreshing - an Oasis - a one-day retreat for the women of the church I attend on Saturday, May 12^th.  I have been busy designing and making the samples for them to see and to calculate the materials needed.  The event committee has decided to use a theme photo and verse they found for many of the aspects of the day.  I am using the chosen theme cards and colors (Pink, Aqua, White) as the inspiration for the hand-made cards I will teach at the Make-and-Take-Card session. 

Because the day will conclude with an elegant Afternoon High Tea for all of the ladies, I decided to use 2 types of Tea Bag Folding on the cards we’ll make.  I decided to use an unusual type of card fold to showcase the main element, the verse for the day and to end up with a 5 ½ x 4 1/4” card (A2 envelope).  I tried to keep the design simple, yet elegant, as I don’t know who all will be making these, how much time we’ll have and what their ‘crafty-quotient’ will be…  {smile}  I hope these will work out.

One type of card will feature the Dahlia fold, using circles to represent the petals of a flower.  In trying to find the right color of {inexpensive} paper to use for the Dahlia, I found small, pink, flower-shaped notepads (80 sheets per pad) at Michaels and used my 2” circle punch to cut the pieces to fold.  I got 4 circles per sheet - and need 8 circles per Dahlia.  I cut 4” scalloped circles in aqua with my Cricut on which to mount the Dahlias and cut small corner flourishes for the bottom sections.  I used a few Recollections gems on the flower and flourishes.  I printed the Verse-of-the-Day on white cardstock and mounted them on pink cardstock on the inside bottom section of the card.  There is plenty of room for a personal note inside above that.

 

 The other type is a Traditional Tea Bag Folded design - still representing the petals of a flower, but using square pieces of paper, folded and intertwined snuggly together.  I found small, pink, square floral printed notepads (200 sheets per pad) for these at Michaels, also.  Eight squares are needed for each design.  Once the element was done, I did alter it just slightly to fit into the A2 envelope by trimming the outer points just a tad…(1/8”).  The inside is the same as the other card. 

 

I look forward to a lovely day of refreshing our souls, hearts, minds and bodies on that day of Oasis!  

Appreciation...

Therefore encourage one another and build each other up,

 just as in fact you are doing.

I Thessalonians 5:11

I am the proud mother of a Marine Captain.  He is currently deployed to a far-away land.  He is in danger 24/7.  This is Hard for me and all of the other Mothers of Military Adults…  There is little I can do to help him at this time short of prayer - constant…without ceasing…  In the meantime, I am part of a local support group - Military-Families.org    We support each other as Parents of those currently In Service and we endeavor to support the young families of those serving our country. 

We are having a very special event in May - a Military Spouse Appreciation Evening - an evening of Pampering for any local military spouses.  There will be childcare available, dinner donated by a restaurant chain, speeches by local military and government officials, mini-makeovers done by MARY KAY Consultants, chair massages done by massage therapists, simple haircare done by local cosmetology students and another friend and I will be presenting a ‘Make-and-Take-a-Card’ opportunity for the women.   I am excited to participate, pamper and present a Special Evening for these brave women of the Homefront!

I’ve made several ‘mock-ups’ of the types of cards we’ll make that evening, in order to calculate the materials needed and as examples for the women to see.  It’s been several busy weeks of ‘designing, planning and doing’ to this point and there is still a lot of work to be done before the event on Friday, May 11^th - from 6 to 9 p.m. - in Camarillo, CA where it will be held.  Lots of bits and pieces to be cut and put in baggies before that evening!  I thought I’d share them with you here. 

I decided to give the ladies the option to make either a card with a patriotic theme or one using the theme colors of the evening’s event - soft spring colors.   Here are the samples -

I did a ‘representation’ of the American flag on these two - one each in a different orientation.  I embossed the top blue section with the Stars pattern in my Cuttlebug.  My friend has a Star punch that is nicer (a ‘cut and embossed’ star punch) than the white stars I cut for these on my Cricut, so we’ll use it for their cards.  They’ll be able to choose a tag with their choice of ‘sentiment’ that night…

These are made with light sage cardstock and decorated with various items, punched borders, ribbon bows and flowers, which I made, and stamped/punched sentiments (of their choice) - all in pastels of the evening’s decorations.

Do YOU know of anyone who is a Military Spouse?  Please be sure and Thank them for what they do while they’re mate is serving Our Country!