A VERY DIFFERENT CHALLENGE!

My husband Kev and I have a different sort of challenge on our hands over the next few months! Kev was made redundant in august, and consequently the rest of 2009 was very difficult time for us. Our finances (or lack of them) my struggle with my dental problems, and our stressful state of mind really bought us to our knees! Because we just cant manage the rent and heating bills in this house we rent, we are having to move out to a smaller place. The search is on! to find a flat that will accommodate us our doggy and our stuff! moving house is far more stressful when you "have" to move rather than want to! Sadly, I have now packed up all of my craft stuff! I don't know when I will be able to unpack it and get creative again. I know I won't have a craft room in my new home, but I am hoping for a storage cupboard or some sort of creative space to store and eventually play with my stuff again! 

We have a gorgeous West Highland terrier named Lulu, she is our fur baby! and she is coming with us. Having a dog has narrowed down the flats available to us, but we love her too much to re-home her.
At the end of the day we are learning to trust our God for our every need. I said earlier that in 2009 we have been bought to our knees! well that is a good place to be really. We have no way of getting ourselves out of the situation we are in, no way of making it all better by ourselves, no money we can throw at the problem. But in all of this we have become a lot closer to God and have chosen to trust Him. The bible says he has a plan for us....
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11 NIV).......Yes lord we place our hope and trust in YOU!
if you pray then please pray for us, for a job for my Kev and these changes. thank you.


thanks for looking
God Bless You 
Crafteresa xx

!!! Happy New Year !!!

It's a New Day

Some of you may know that I created another blog some time ago named "Teddy Stampers." its a challenge blog where you can use any brand of stamp as long as the creation includes a teddy bear image.

Well running the blog on my own didnt go too well, but rather than close the blog I joined up with a crafting friend Jerusha Borden from Canada and we discussed and planned a lot over the past 2 months. We put out a DT call and have now enrolled an international design team who are from Canada, England, South Africa and USA.Ecitedy, we have relaunched the Teddy Stampers challenge blog today, we will host a 2 weekly challenge which will run every 2nd friday, and we hope to add more interesting stuff like tutorials, stamping news, etc and have challenges especially for the younger crafters too. Eventually we also hope to have sponsors with challenge prizes and blog hops etc.

I would really appreciate it if you could spread the news about Teddy Stampers, maybe by entering a challenge and posting a link on your blog, or perhaps becoming a follower. or just telling your friends about us.

Thanks for looking today

and for visiting my blog regularly, I appreciate your imput!

wishing you all a Fabulous, Fun, Peaceful, Blessed New Year 2010

With Love

Crafteresa xx

*****THURSDAY THREE!!!***** Christmas Carols

Wow, how fast this week has flown by, its "Thursday Three" time again already!!! I thought it would be good this week to look at Christmas carols, I am choosing 3 of my favourite traditional Christmas carols.....

My most favourite Carol is Silent Night...

The origin of the Christmas carol we know as Silent Night was a poem that was written in 1816 by an Austrian priest called Joseph Mohr. On Christmas Eve in 1818 in the small alpine village called Oberndorf it is reputed that the organ at St. Nicholas Church had broken. Joseph Mohr gave the poem of Silent Night (Stille Nacht) to his friend Franz Xavier Gruber and the melody for Silent Night was composed with this in mind. The music to Silent Night was therefore intended for a guitar and the simple score was finished in time for Midnight Mass. Silent Night is the most famous Christmas carol of all time!

Silent night, holy night

All is calm, all is bright

Round yon Virgin Mother and Child

Holy Infant so tender and mild

Sleep in heavenly peace

Sleep in heavenly peace

Silent night, holy night!

Shepherds quake at the sight

Glories stream from heaven afar

Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia!

Christ, the Saviour is born

Christ, the Saviour is born

Silent night, holy night

Son of God, love's pure light

Radiant beams from Thy holy face

With the dawn of redeeming grace

Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth

Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth 

I have loved this carol ever since my very young days when we sang it in infant school. But now as I consider the depth of its meaning and the wonder of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords being born to Mary in a stable of all places in the quiet of the night, I can only stand in awe, in silence, and ponder the magnitude of the first "Silent Night" I do however wonder if it really was silent? what about the angels singing? could they be heard by the normal ear as they worshipped Jesus, or was that beautiful sound only for the chosen few?


My second favourite carol is O Come All Ye Faithful...

O Come All Ye Faithful

Joyful and triumphant,O come ye, 

O come ye to Bethlehem.

Come and behold Him,

Born the King of Angels;

O come, let us adore Him,

O come, let us adore Him,

O come, let us adore Him,

Christ the Lord.

O Sing, choirs of angels,

Sing in exultation,

Sing all that hear in heaven God's holy word.

Give to our Father glory in the Highest;

O come, let us adore Him,

O come, let us adore Him,

O come, let us adore Him,

Christ the Lord.

All Hail! Lord, we greet Thee,

Born this happy morning,

O Jesus! for evermore be Thy name adored.

Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing;

O come, let us adore Him,

O come, let us adore Him,

O come, let us adore Him,

Christ the Lord.

Even though we sang this one in school too, this carol has meant a lot more to me since becoming a Christian 20 years ago. Whether feeling happy or sad, joyful or depressed, full of faith or even doubt, worshipping and adoring Him has become a very powerful way of loving God and a way of life for me. I'm not saying I always find it easy, in fact some times its a battle to worship when life is getting me down, but I always feel warm inside and overwhelmingly loved and even empowered when I battle through "joyful and triumphant" and love my God in this way.

My third carol choice is Hark the Herald Angels sing...

Hark the herald angels sing

"Glory to the newborn King!

Peace on earth and mercy mild

God and sinners reconciled"

Joyful, all ye nations rise

Join the triumph of the skies

With the angelic host proclaim:

"Christ is born in Bethlehem"

Hark! The herald angels sing

"Glory to the newborn King!"

Christ by highest heav'n adored

Christ the everlasting Lord!

Late in time behold Him come

Offspring of a Virgin's womb

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see

Hail the incarnate Deity

Pleased as man with man to dwell

Jesus, our Emmanuel

Hark! The herald angels sing

"Glory to the newborn King!"

Hail the heav'n-born Prince of Peace!

Hail the Son of Righteousness!

Light and life to all He brings

Ris'n with healing in His wings

Mild He lays His glory by

Born that man no more may die

Born to raise the sons of earth

Born to give them second birth

Hark! The herald angels sing

"Glory to the newborn King"

I love to hear a proper choir sing this one in a large church or cathedral, at Christmastime. As I finish off the placing of presents under the tree and a final tidy around on Christmas eve I like to listen to a cathedral midnight service on television. I usually become emotional at this point when I think of the angelic host announcing the birth of Jesus in song. I ponder what it would have been like to be there to witness the sight and to hear the host of angels singing, worshipping, heralding Christ the new born king? from the Silent Night to the awesome din of angelic worship, adoring Him...Christ the saviour is born! and I think of those I have loved who have gone before to that beautiful place we call heaven, and the warm thought of what they will be experienceing surrounded by the same heavenly host of angels we sing about in this carol.


God bless You as you prepare for your own Christmastime, remember...

Happy Christmas, Crafteresa xxx

all Christmas Carols information taken from
http://www.carols.org.

Forever Friends DT card "ANYTHING GOES"

I've been taking a break from the Design Team of the Forever Friends challenge blog for a few weeks after my dental operation and agreed to go back after Christmas but how could I resist going back early with the "Open" challenge this week and so many lovely stamps to choose from?

This is another card in my favourite Christmas colour combo again of white and blues, not much silver on this one though. I have used Copic Ciao markers to colour the image, and glittered the white bits of the bear's hat. The pale blue is glitter card with mid blue metallic card on top of a sheet of scrapbook paper from a stack. A foiled greeting with organza ribbon and bow and clear gems finish the card off.
Pop over to the Forever Friends challenge blog and have go at our challenge, you dont have to use a Christmas stamp some of the Forever Friends stamps would look great with Christmas papers or a snowflake or two!


Also the Teddy Stampers challenge blog will be re-launching on New Years Day with fortnightly challenges etc. and we are looking for DT members. fancy having a go? details are HERE 


Thanks for looking


Crafteresa x

Friday Five!!

My "Thursday Three" selections this week became the "Friday Five" mainly because I just ran out of time yesterday and wanted to give a good selection of examples for my chosen  subject which is...

Exploding Boxes 

These boxes can be made as lovely personal keepsakes of special events or albums of special people, or just a blank shell for the recipient to add there own photographs. Exploding boxes make great Christmas gifts. it's a fabulous way to give photographs to grandparents of their grandchildren or a momento of an event that happened in the year maybe a wedding or milestone birthday! they make a truly unique gift.
Please visit the blog links to the creators of these lovely exploding box samples. all of which are highlighted in orange!

In searching the web for exploding boxes I found a range of different shapes from triangles, squares, to multi sided shapes. Most of the exploding boxes have three layers and a lid but as you will see some differ! The exploding boxes with more sides allows more room for all those photographs, quotes, personalisation and embelishments. You can make a simple box or go OTT with elaberate decorations its totally your choice and theres a place for both....

This sweet first one created by annieclarabelle on UKS is a lovely baby boy Christening gift, I love that little shoe! it has been personalised with the little ones details making it a very special gift to keep and treasure.

This fantastic Octogon box by Stephanie Garbett created for Scrapbook Magazine is so unique with all these lovely pictures, and embelishments, if you look closely you will spot a layer made of acetate with comments about the photo beneath? every time I view this octogon exploding box I notice something different, its jam packed with interest and a lovely keepsake of a special young girl. see another pic of the closed box on Stephanies blog.

This one by Linda Lucine is a great holiday keepsake example using an exploding box to display holiday photographs, its a lot more tactile and interesting than flicking through a photograph album. Linda includes more photographs and instructions on her blog.

This one by Karen Hall (Kazzelle) is a custom made wedding anniversary gift, The sextagon shaped box is handpainted and distressed before the Photographs and embellishments were added, I love the romantic pink theme. This is a good example of a box with just two layers which in my opinion is still a very lovely gift.

This one by Voodoo Vixen on UKS is so unique, I havent found another pyramid shaped one like this in my search,  it closes with ribbons at the points rather than a lid. I will have to have a go at this when I find instructions (or create my own!)  I love the papers she used. she has created a range of different shaped boxes on her blog.

So, how do you make an exploding box? well I am not an expert so I will give you a couple of links to some really good instructions.
Anso has posted some really precise instructions on her blog
Voodoo Vixen has a good tutorial on the octogon shaped box on her blog

There are templates for sale too which make exploding box making easier but perhaps only really beneficial if you know you will be making quite a few boxes of the same shape as the templates are around £10+ each. I like this one which resembles 5 sided flower box, and this one which will create quite a tall octogon shaped box
I have also seen die-cut ready to assemble kits on create and craft tv but I personally feel that exploding boxes made from scratch far nicer and much more special to the recipient

hope you enjoyed this quick look at exploding box making and will visit the blogs of the samples used
if you make an exploding box then link it in the comments for us all to see

Thanks for looking

Crafteresa
I love comments and the opportunity to visit my visitors blogs too!

Frosty the Snowman!

I have been a busy girl this weekend! here's another Christmas card using my favourite colour combo. I just love the crispness of white and blue shades with a touch if silver.

This card may seem a bit OTT with glitter and sparkle but its for a very special friend who's middle names should have been glitz and bling LOL! I know she will love it.

This frosty snowman card fits into a few challenges:
1,   Copic Creations Challenge I was really pleased to find this challenge blog this weekend and I plan to enter the challenges regularly if I can. Challenge #17 is "Snow / Snowpeople"  This is the first time I have ever entered a challenge specifically for Copic markers, I am really still learning how to use them and trying to find my own best technique but I'm having fun on the way too!

2,   Stamp Something Challenges Their challenge is "Glitzy Something"

3,   Crafty Calendar Challenge  Their challenge is "Winter Sparkle"
4,   Pile It On Their challenge is "Tinsel Town" to use Glitter and to enter at least one more challenge with the same card.
5,   Creative Card Crew  Their challenge is simply "Christmas"

I have certainly met all the challenge requests, now a challenge of my own still awaits.....the challenge to get all myChristmas cards created and sent before Christmas day creeps up on me.....must go and make some more Christmas cards...


thanks for looking ;o)
Crafteresa xx
(I love to read your feedback please leave me a comment)

One Card Five Challenges

Here's another Christmas card I created this morning...

Seems like I am getting back into the challenge swing! this one meets 5 challenges...

1,    Papertake Weekly Challenge, my card was created using their sketch.

2,    Cupcake Challenge, their challenge is "Red and Green"

3,    Creative Card Crew, their challenge is "Christmas" (this is my 2nd entry)

4,    Stampin' for the Weekend, their challenge is "Red Green & Gold."
5,    Stamp With Fun  their challenge is also "Christmas"

I have been getting in some more practice with my Copic Ciao markers using another of the Penny Black rubber stamps my mum bought me back in the 1990's.
I was supposed to be tidying my craft room but I just couldnt resist using the time being creative, my craft room can wait!!! at least I am getting some Christmas cards made!