Christmas Blessings

Today is a glorious day... the Second Sunday in Advent. I just love the holy seasons of Christmas and Easter and the special services at church. They refresh my soul!

Speaking of soul refreshing, our hostess for today's scripture challenge at Stampin' Sisters in Christ is the wonderful Ceal Pritchett, who is also my DT sister for Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps... and Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps is once again the sponsor of our challenge! Yay Korin! Thank you soooo much!

Ceal chose the following scripture for inspiration: 2 Chronicles 7:14 "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." (NIV)

Ceal's challenge is to make a card to let someone you know that you are praying for them, using images of people.

As I said in the SSCC blog post, while we most certainly should pray for others, we should also pray for ourselves. I don't mean this in a selfish way. Today's scripture tells us to humble ourselves and pray and seek God's face, and He will hear us. God wants us to have a personal relationship with Him, and we do that in large part by talking to Him through our prayers. There is certainly no greater path to joy, solace and peace than by turning to God and allowing Him to be the father He wants to be to each of us.

My card might not appear to go along with the challenge, but my prayer for each of you is for Christmas blessings.

The sweet image is a digi stamp by Chris Dickinson for Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps called The Greatest Gift. The DP is more of the scrumptious holiday paper by Webster's Pages, as is the lace. I followed Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge #50, although I mine is square. I'm totally hooked on Mercy's sketches!

Enabler alert: Korin has added some seasonal stamps to the clearance sale... 70% off!!! You also MUST check out the two new releases for this month, Punny Fruits & Veggies and Trees of the Field.

I'm so glad you stopped by today. Don't forget... there's still one more week to enter for a chance to win one of my five Birthday Blog Candy prize packages! See the link at the top of my blog.

Merry Christmas

Hello my friends! It's been a busy Saturday, with the usual chores and a rather feeble attempt at starting the Christmas decorating, but I couldn't let the day go by without popping in to announce that I, Lisa Hjulberg, lucky girl that I am, have been invited by the fabulous Claire Brennan to be part of her Design Team for Waltzingmouse Stamps!! I could not be happier!

I think I first "found" Claire through our mutual love of Papertrey Ink. I remember one of the first posts I read on her blog was a ghost story. Claire lives in bonny Ireland, land of fairies and magic, and I was immediately intrigued. I've read lots of books that take place in Ireland and am desperate to see it all for myself one day. So I get a vicarious taste of it through Claire's blog... not only from her unique and well-loved artwork, but also through her stories and pictures of Ireland.

I remember when Claire drew a "wee cottage" for a card. I was delighted because it was like something right out of one of those books I've read. When she decided to step out and start her own stamp company, I was thrilled! Her designs are truly special, and I love that most of them require no coloring. (While I love coloring images, it IS nice to do some solid stamping once in awhile, and certainly much quicker to a finished card.)

That "wee cottage" landed in one of her first sets, Irish Blessings.

My card features stamps from a very special Secret Stamp Set. You have to go to a special link and enter a password to see the full set... she's clever, our Claire!

You still have time to get some of her wonderful stamp sets in time for Christmas, but you must hurry... the Royal Mail is advising December 10th, but the sooner the better! Two new sets were just released yesterday...Very Vintage Labels #5 and Little Box Labels. Plus, there's a chance to win your entire order this weekend for free! For details, see Claire's blog post here. I can't wait until the Pony Express arrives at my door with Very Vintage Labels #5 so that I can sample it for you. I think it might be the most elegant of the Nestie labels sets yet!

The beautiful DP is from a digi paper pack designed by my dear friend Nina Brackett for GinaK Designs, called Simple Elegance. She just released two more wonderful digi papers, Lovely Shelf, to coordinate with her new stamp set of the same name. I'm printing those out next! You can see Lovely Shelf and all of the rest of Nina's stamp sets and digi papers at this link. My card base is GinaK's Pure Luxury Green Apple. I print my digi papers on SU's Whisper White because it's so lightweight.

Thank you so much for stopping by. I hope you'll come back tomorrow for the latest Stampin' Sisters in Christ challenge, and a few more things I have to share with you. Have a great evening!

Warm Winter Wishes Waltzingmouse Style!

TGIF, especially since today kicks off not only a new Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge, but also a new stamp release! Four amazing sets are up for grabs today, including the newest in the Whimiscal Wishes line, Discover Your Wings. In Taylor's own words:

"...we've decided to donate proceeds from the sale of this stamp set to Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep (NILMDTS). The NILMDTS Foundation is a charity that administers a network of almost 7000 photographers throughout the US and 25 other countries. These photographers volunteer their time and professional services to gently provide a helping hand and healing heart to families who have suffered the loss of an infant. They offer beautiful photography services in a compassionate and sensitive manner. NILMDTS is there for parents and families to help them in their healing, bring hope to their future, and to honor their child. They believe that it is through remembrance that a family can truly begin to heal. We are honored to help support this charity and I encourage you to go to their website and learn more about their wonderful work."

Wow, Taylor, what a great choice of charities to support. I can only the imagine the anguish a parent feels in losing a child so young. I'm grateful mine were (and still are) healthy. My heart breaks for those who weren't/aren't so lucky.

There are also two more CUTE sets being released today, one designed in collaboration with the fantastic Jami Sibley called Sweet Occasions, and the latest in the Cuppie series, Crafty Cuppie, along with a coordinating sentiments set Crafty Expressions. I don't know about you, but I think all four will find their way into my shopping cart!

Plus, wait until you see the new TE Card Kits available starting today! Yowsers! You can see everything in all its glory on Taylor's blog.

Speaking of wonderful stamp sets, my card features two from Waltzingmouse Stamps; Sewing Box Christmas and Off Beat Backgrounds. I just LOVE the Sewing Box stamps because I'm really into the homespun look and there's no coloring required. Notice that the center flower is cut from the inside of the larger flower. I didn't have quite enough room for three full flowers, so this worked out great. Plus, you can stamp the flower (or any of the stamps) on two different colored cardstocks and layer them for even more variety.

I stamped my flowers, words and background with Papertrey Ink Fresh Snow hybrid ink (which is also sponged around the edges), and the plaid pattern in Memento Rhubarb Stalk.

Be sure and check out what the rest of the Sketch Crew has to delight your senses:

Lynn Mercurio: Stamperosity
Monika Davis: M.A.D. Stamper
Sherrie Siemens: Card Creme

Melissa Sauls: In Stamping Mode
Rachel Sztonyk: Gingerbread Gallery
Alice Lihsuan-Wertz: Alice's Little Wonderland
and of course Taylor herself: Taylored Expressions

Another enabler alert: word on the street is that Waltzingmouse Stamps is releasing two more amazing stamp sets either today or tomorrow, so keep an eye out for those! One will coordinate with another Spellbinders Nestie Labels set. In case you didn't know, Waltzingmouse Stamps carries lots of sets that coordinate with Nesties!

Okay, raise your hand if you're ready for Christmas already. Because if you are, I want to know your secret! All I've done so far is make a list, but I guess you gotta start somewhere.

Thanks so much for stopping by my friends. I hope you have a wonderful day!

Christmas Blessings

It's Wednesday! Time for another fantastic La-La Land Weekly Wednesday Challenge! This week's hostess is the fabulous Jane Matsumoto (love her!), and she has challenged us to use buttons in our cards/projects. Shhhhh...don't tell Jane, but that's not a challenge for me... I LOVE using buttons on my card. (*smile*)

This week's Mojo Monday Sketch 115 was calling my name. I have a thing for square cards, and it's the perfect fit for this beautiful background paper by Webster's Pages. I decided to rough up the edges and ink them a bit. I punched the snowflakes from the same Websters Pages DP (showing the reverse), and added the buttons for the final touch.

The adorable image is Christmas Rosie with Bird. The greeting is from a Papertrey Ink stamp set.

I hope you'll come join us for this week's La-La Land Weekly Wednesday Challenge. You can use any stamps of your choice, and there's a chance to win a La-La Land Crafts stamp as a prize! There's also still time to play in this week's challenge at Stampin' Sisters in Christ hosted by La-La Land Crafts. Jump on in ladies, the water's fine!

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you have a blessed day!

You're a Peach!

Is it Tuesday already? Wow, I've been so busy celebrating my birthday and getting back into the swing of work, the past couple of days are a blur!

I cannot tell you how blessed you all made me feel with your heartfelt good wishes for my birthday. The birthday party blog hop thrown by my Stampin' Sisters in Christ was also amazing and made me laugh and cry all at the same time...especially the Donny Osmond video (if you have time, you must check it out). Wowsers, do I feel like a queen! Thank you thank you thank you from the bottom of my heart. Truly.

Today also happens to be December 1st, so time for a fabulous new release from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps! Two wonderful stamp sets are being released today: Trees of the Field (a portion of the proceeds from which will go to the Anderson family in honor of their precious Henry), and Punny Fruits & Veggies, which I've sampled for you today. This is such a great set for Valentine cards, don't you think?

The cardstock is Prism, and the DP is from the Nook & Pantry collection by Basic Grey (perfect for this whimsical stamp set!). I'm entering my card in this week's Crazy4Challenges Week 13 challenge - Punch Happy. The challenge is to use border, shape or decorative punches on your card. I used a Martha Stewart border punch along the top, a square punch to punch out the images, a circle punch for the greeting, and a flower punch for the greeting mat.

If you're reading this in your Google (or similar) Reader or by email, don't forget to post a comment in the post below for a chance to win one of five prize packages for my birthday blog candy. I'm paying it forward!

Danielle, Becky, Des, Marianne... that includes you!

Thanks so much for stopping by... it's always a pleasure to have you visit. I hope you'll come back tomorrow for the La-La Land Weekly Wednesday Challenge: Button, Button, Who's Got the Button. (That's a hint...haha.)

Have a very pun day!