Easter Greetings...

Welcome Back and Happy Sunday!

I'm so glad that you're here!  

Spring has finally started here in Manitoba, Canada!

The Canadian geese have arrived, there are huge puddles everywhere with no shortage of mud anywhere, and I'm waiting to see the first robin red breast on the yard!

Spring however, also brings with it a very important holiday for Christians...that would be Easter of course!  While Christmas is important to our faith...it would be nothing without Easter!  The sacrifice that our Lord and Saviour made to reconcile us to Himself is nothing short of amazing! 

Amazing Grace!

While the bunny images, spring flowers and little chicks are very cute around this time of year...please, let's not forget the reason we have Easter!  Jesus took our sins upon himself while on the cross that we could experience forgiveness and have a relationship with Him...as well as defeating the enemy!  We know how the story ends and while things may seem mixed up in this world, and it may seem that the evil one has taken over...as Christians we know that God's word stands and one day our Lord and Saviour will return!  We know that if we confess God as our Lord and Saviour, believe on His name, confess our sins and follow His word, He has promised us eternal life with Him in paradise!

"Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.  Do you believe this?"

John 11:25-26  

Did you read that?  Jesus is the resurrection and the life!  If we believe in Him, we will live even after we die...that's eternal life with God forever...all He requires of us is to believe in Him!  

We have a new challenge starting today at Mustard Seed Faith Challenge Blog, and the theme of the challenge for the next two weeks if you haven't guessed already is Easter!  

I wanted to portray the real meaning for the holiday in my creation...so I chose to work with the Flowering Dogwood Collection by Heartfelt Creations which has some beautiful imagery of the cross, delicate doves as well as a lovely church...and of course the dogwood flower which has a lovely Easter legend tied to it!  If you've never heard the legend, be sure to google it!

Allow me to share with you my Easter creation...

I've also used the beautiful decorative window die also created by Heartfelt Creations.  

I thought it worked so well with that lovely church image!

So now it's your turn!

I do hope you will share your Easter themed projects with us at Mustard Seed Faith Challenges!

I also hope that during this Easter season you set aside some time to think about the real meaning of the holiday and take time to thank our Heavenly Father for His sacrifice!

Until next time...

The Lord's Unfailing Love...

Welcome!  

I hope wherever you are in the world life is good for you today!

I'm back this week with another Flowering Dogwood Collection project for Heartfelt Creations!

It's another wall hanging!

I saw this wooden cross for altering while shopping in Hobby Lobby during my little adventure to CHA and immediately thought of the Flowering Dogwood Collection!

Would you like to see how it turned out?

Well let's keep you waiting no longer...

I had not had a chance to use any of the faith based stamps released on Black Friday yet, so I thought one of them would surely be perfect to add a sentiment on this cross!  I really like how the sentiment turned out there in the center.  I've stamped it, fussy cut around it and then popped it up off the wall hanging with pop dots!

I've kept this creation more monochromatic keeping it with the greens and blues. 
Unfortunately we're in a stretch of cloud cover again and the photo really doesn't show off the floral colors clearly. 

I've included all of the instructions to recreate this wall hanging at the end of my blog post. 
It really wasn't a hard or labor intensive project at all!

I do hope you stop by the Heartfelt Creations blog as well to take in the amazing creations the rest of the design team have created!

Until next time...

Project Supplies and Instructions
Flowering Dogwood Paper Collection, HCDP1-275
Flowering Dogwood Cling Stamp Set, HCPC-3773
Flowering Dogwood Branches Cling Stamp Set, HCPC-3774
Flowering Dogwood & Doves Cling Stamp Set, HCPC-3775
Flowering Dogwood Die, HCD1-7129
Flowering Dogwood Branches Die, HCD1-7130
Flowering Dogwood & Doves Die, HCD1-7131
Courage and Strength Cling Stamp Set, HCPC-3763
Deluxe Flower Shaping Kit, HCST1-401
Memento Dye Ink Pad - Bamboo Leaves, TSMP707
Memento Dye Ink Pad - Olive Grove, TSMP708
Designer Dries Clear Adhesive, 159723
Metal Tip for Adhesive Bottles,  352854
Crystal Ultrafine Transparent Glitter, 85-glitter
Spring Bring Prills - Lettuce Entertain You, Heart of Gold, ANC850

Watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI8RqHAt3vE to learn how to create the Flowering Dogwood with the Deluxe Flower Shaping Kit.

Other Products Used:  BigShot die cutting machine, wooden cross wall hanging, VersaFine Grey Ink, white card stock, Spellbinders Shapeabilities Die - Wreaths, sponge daubers, Memento Dye Ink Pad - Flannel Grey, nail file, pencil, scissors, paper trimmer, water, spritz bottle, glitter glass, pop dots

Select a light blue patterned paper from within the Flowering Dogwood Paper Collection.  Trace the wooden cross onto paper using pencil and cut.  Adhere paper to wooden cross with good adhesive and allow to dry.  Once dried, use nail file/emery board to smooth paper edges for a finished look around edges.  Using a grey ink, stamp one inking of each size of dogwood flowers, two of the flowering dogwood branches, several bunches of leaves, the sentiment as well as one dove image as shown.  Color flowers, leaves and branches using several green colored inks and sponge daubers.  Die cut all elements.  Assemble flowers, some as doubles and leaving some as single blossoms.  Trim sentiment and adhere to cross using pop dots.  Adhere wreath die cut to cross as shown.  Shape and adhere one flowering dogwood branch on top of cross, and one coming across center of cross under sentiment.  Create flower clusters as shown, one on the top, in center and bottom of cross.  Add in leaf accents where necessary.  Add a touch of color to dove using sponge dauber and adhere dove among flower cluster on top of cross.  Add prills to flower centers.  Lastly adhere glitter and glitter glass to flowers. 

Easter Wishes

Welcome!

Can you believe it's the first day of April today?

That means that Easter is just around the corner!

I wanted to do something special for Easter for today's Heartfelt Creations post.

While bunnies and Easter eggs are all fun and cute, I wanted to take some time out to acknowledge what the Easter season really means to me.  Easter is the time of year that we celebrate the cruxifiction and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.  He paid the price for our sins upon the cross many years ago that we might have a relationship with him and become His children.  The cross is such a powerful image for me, and when you really take the time to think about that first Good Friday and really allow yourself to think about Jesus' death you just cannot help but be moved and have your heart stirred with thankfullness.  

So, I decided to create a cross related creation....it is a cross shaped box...perfect for treats or as a piece of home decor!

Here's a peek...

...and a bit of a closer peek at the floral cluster...

I have to say that I really enjoyed creating all of the flowers on this creation...I always do have fun creating flowers...but this time I had time to reflect on the reason I was creating this piece and kind of turn it into an act of worship.  I found the colors soothing and I loved the sentiment that I used from the Posy Patch Paper Collection.  Sometimes projects don't always come out the way we want and it's a struggle.  I have to say that I was very happy with how this one turned out! I hope you have enjoyed the creation as well and have found some inspiration while you were here visiting!

That's all for me today!  I hope you have a wonderful Easter season celebrating with family and friends...and I hope you take a bit of time to reflect on the price that was paid for us so many years ago.   Also, be sure to visit the Heartfelt Creations blog for more wonderful inspiration!

Until next time...

Project Supplies and Instructions

HCDP1-231  Posy Patch Paper Collection
HCPC-3656  Delightful Daisies Cling Stamp Set
HCD1-760  Delightful Daisy Die
HPCC-3533  Sun Kissed Fleur Cling Stamp Set
HCD1-734  Sun Kissed Fleur Die
HCPC - 3608  Arianna Blooms Cling Stamp Set
 HCD1-748  Arianna Blooms Die
HCPC-3651  Botanical Rose Cling Stamp Set
HCD1-758  Botanical Wings Die
HCPC-3650  Butterfly Medley Cling Stamp Set
 HCD1-759  Butterfly Medley Die
HCPC-3545  Open Leaf Cling Stamp Set
HCD1-736  Classic Leaf Die
HCST1-401  Deluxe Flower Shaping Kit
TSMP708  Memento Dye Ink Pad - Olive Green
TSMP706  Memento Dye Ink Pad - Pistachio
TSMP400  Memento Dye Ink Pad - Rose Bud
TSMP103  Memento Dye Ink Pad - Cantaloupe
TSMP602  Memento Dye Ink Pad - Teal Zeal
TSMP704  Memento Dye Ink Pad - New Sprout
ANC852 Bright Ideas Prills - I Cannot Tell a Lilac
273900  Zip Dry Glue

Other Products Used:  Silhouette Design Store Design ID #39084, Silhouette Cameo Electronic Die Cutting Machine,  Star Dust Stickles, Memento Dye Ink Pads - Angel Pink, Dandelion, Gray Flannel, and Sweet Plum,  Big Shot manual die cutting machine, piece of lace, gold seed beads, water and mist bottle, scissors

Cut the cross box cutting file and assemble.  Locate the sentiment panel in the Posy Patch Paper Collection, and fussy cut around the design portion of the sentiment as shown.  Attach to the box only adhering the first half with glue and leaving the second half to be shaped.  Bend the sentiment panel slightly and tuck the corner into the box giving it a bit of dimension.  Begin creating and shaping your flowers.  For the blue flower use the Arianna Blooms Cling Stamp set and Die.  Stamp the image using Gray Flannel ink once onto a piece of blue patterned paper from the Posy Patch Collection. Ink the centre and edge of each blossom using Zeal Teal ink.   Use all of the flower pieces to create one blossom with a tight centre.  Moving along to the yellow blooms.  Use the Delightful Daisies Cling Stamp Set and die to create these blooms.  Stamp the images once onto a yellow patterned paper from the paper collection using Pistachio ink.  Ink the centres of each bloom with the Cantaloupe color, and the tips of the petals ink with Dandelion colored ink.  Shape the largest flower pictured using the largest stamped image as well as the one a size smaller.  Create a second yellow flower using the mid sized image and the one the next size down.  Adhere gold seed beads to the centre of each of the yellow flowers.  For the purple flower, use the Sun Kissed Fleur Cling Stamp Set and coordinating die.  Ink and stamp the images once using Gray Flannel ink and a purple patterned paper from the paper collection.  Ink the centres and edges of the three mid sized flowers with purple ink.  Shape and adhere prills to the centre.  Lastly, for the roses  stamp three sets of the Botanical Rose Cling Stamp Set onto a patterned pink paper in the collection  and ink the centres with Memento Rose Bud ink, and the petal edges with Angel Pink.  Use two of each sized flower to create a large full rose with a tight centre. Begin with the smaller flowers to create a tight bud, and work your way out using the larger flowers.   Next, for the second rose, use the same technique until you have a small sized rose perfect to add to the bottom of the cluster.  For the leaves use one stamping of the Open Leaf Cling Stamp Set stamped in Olive Grove ink onto a green patterned paper in the paper collection.  Cut using the coordinating die and then ink the edges with the New Sprout colored ink.   Shape using shaping tools and water.  Lastly, stamp one stamping of the Delightful Daisies Cling Stamp Set leaves using New Sprout ink and a lighter green patterned paper from the Posy Patch paper collection.  Ink edges slightly with the same color, and proceed to shape.  You are now ready to create your flower cluster.  Once you are happy with the flower and leaf arrangement, adhere to box.  While drying, stamp and die cut several butterflies in Gray Flannel ink onto a pale yellow patterned paper from the same paper collection.  Using your finger, apply stickles to each butterfly.  Once dry, shape and apply to the flower cluster.  For the finishing step, drape a piece of lace around the cross, tucking it behind a few of the leaves and having it drape down through and behind the sentiment panel.  You are now ready to display as a piece of Easter decor, or use as a treat box to fill and surprise someone special!

This project has been shared in the following challenges...
The Crafter's Cafe Challenge Blog..."Easter"
Crafting by Designs..."April Anything Goes Challenge"
Creative Moments Challenges..."Anything But a Card"
Decorate to Celebrate..."Anything Goes"
Word Art Wednesday..."Anything Goes"

Add a Little Dazzle Dazzling Diva Challenge..."Anything Goes/Spring"
Creative Card Crew..."Handmade Flowers"
Deep Ocean Challenge Blog..."Spring/Easter"
Die Cuttin' Divas..."Anything Goes"
Through the Craft Room Door..."Anything Goes"
Crafty Boots Challenges..."Easter"
Creative Cutting Challenge..."Easter"
Make My Monday..."Flowers"
Ohhh La La Challenges..."Easter"
Pile it On Challenge Blog..."Easter/Spring" 
DL Art..."Easter"
613 Avenue Create..."Anything Goes"
Sentimental Sundays..."Springtime Flowers"
That Craft Place..."Easter/Spring"
My Sheri Crafts..."Cross, Bunnies or Eggs"
Crafts 4 Eternity..."Easter"
Polkadoodles..."Use a Die"