Sharing my heart...

Hi everyone,

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! I see it's been about 3 weeks since I last posted. December was a crazy month here.... with family get togethers, a card making project I was honoured to work on, and an emotional Christmas. I really just needed a few weeks away from blogging.

As many of you know, I made and sent weekly cards of encouragement to my husband's uncle for 15 months during his chemo treatments and continued battle with cancer (which ended just over a week ago on Christmas Day). He was a wonderful man and godly example to me of trusting God during the most difficult times of life. A few of you may know that I started to struggled with anxiety 4 years ago (which I now know was mostly related to undiagnosed Celiac disease). The way my anxiety showed itself was through fear of cancer.... to the degree that I thought every little health issue was a symptom of cancer and couldn't handle hearing anything about cancer. This was a dark and scary time for me, full of fear, and one I hope and pray I don't relive. Our uncle was diagnosed just weeks after my anxiety began... and although treatable it wasn't curable. He faced his new challenge with such an amazing attitude and taught me so much about living life and facing death with the grace and peace that only God can provide. I will never forget this most valuable and life changing lesson or the man who taught it by way of his example.

I didn't take pictures of every card I sent him but I did take pictures of some of them. Here's one that I don't believe I've shared yet.

Thank you for letting me share my heart today.
Hugs,
Sarah

Some Our Daily Bread cards

Hi everyone,

I thought I'd pop by today to share some cards I made last month at the craft retreat I went to Cincinnati. Jana Millen was sweet enough to let me borrow some of her "Our Daily Bread Designs" stamps: Scripture Collections 1 and Scripture Series 1. I really do need to add these to my own collection of stamps. I LOVE the messages and have been needing to send out some extra special cards the past few weeks. The sentiments in these set were perfect.

Here are the cards I made:

Thanks for stopping by today!

Some exciting news!

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to pop in to share some exciting news. My dear friend, Latrice, has asked me to be part of her online class series...

Handmade Holidays is a class that is all about Doing it Yourself. You will learn how to create projects with varied difficulty from cards to a monogram wreath. We will focus on both Fall and Christmas holiday for our DIY projects. Lots of the items you will have on hand and a few you can find either online or at your local craft store. No worries though the class blog will be available to you for one year.

This class is taught by Latrice Murphy along with some great guest designers.

The Deets

Registration Dates: October 7-21, 2011

Class Dates: October 24- November 4, 2011

What are we making: We will complete 10 Fall and Christmas themed projects. Here is the full list of projects.

1. Cards using sketches (2)
2. Scrapbooking with sketches (2)
3. Holiday Wreath
4. Yearly ornament
5. Paper pom pom balls
6. Holiday odd and ends banner
7. Framed artwork with stitching
8. Ruffled pillow

Tutorials: Each day there will be a photo tutorial and we will also have 3 videos (Maybe more)

Flickr: We will have a flickr group set up in order to share our projects and to ask any questions during the class.

Supplies needed: Because there are 10 projects in this class the supply list is big, but most of the items you will have in your crafting stash or you can improvise. A quick trip to your local craft store and you’ll be set. You can also get most of the item online at eclectic Paperie. A full supply list will be given to all registered students on October 17th (One week before class starts)

Discount codes: Registered students will receive a special discount code to eclectic Paperie that is good through the entire month of November!

Prizes: There are prizes from May Arts, Penny Black and eclectic Paperie to be given!

Cost: $10 for students who sign up within the above registration dates! Whaaaaat! Yes…just $10! Individuals who sign up after the above date will pay $12...if you would like to register please go HERE to do so.

Latrice has also generously offered me to giveaway TWO spots in the classes. All you need to do is leave a comment on this blog post by Sunday October 16th at midnight EST for a chance to win a free spot.

I've been busy working on my card for the class and am quite excited to be part of this. It's going to be so much fun and I hope that you will join Latrice, myself and the rest of the guest designers.

Before I go I thought I'd share a picture and a card I made while at a scrap retreat just over a week ago. The room was full of talent with the likes of Jennifer McGuire, Jana Millen, Kathy Racoosin, Britta Swiderski, Deborah Nolan, Stephanie Klauck and many, many more fabulous ladies. We had so much fun, so much ice cream (and much to my surprise I got so much done)!

Here's one of the cards I made (for my husband's uncle). If you could keep him and his family in prayer I'd really appreciate it. Thanks.