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!