All things beautiful in His Time

Making new friends is like finding silver! I found a treasure in a new friendship! This wonderful friend has been teaching me the patience and art of hand quilting! Just before I left the states for the summer, she gifted me with a birthday card. It was a small touch, but I didn't even know she knew the date of my birthday! I created this little card with hopes of thanking her sweet spirit for all the wonderful little touches she's added to my life.
"He has made all things beautiful in His time" is definitely true and so wonderfully demonstrated even in new friendships. Just as God placed beautiful flowers to show his handiwork, so He plants his sweet children in our lives to point our hearts back to his glory and grace.
I used my new Cricut to cut the lettering, and found felt floral & butterfly ribbon at Michaels to cut apart for the garden, adding pearl ribbon for "baby breath" touches and green punched leaves for filler. The ladybug is a stamp placed against a splash of stripes to show the early dawn in this garden friendship!

With Much Love

Showering much love on a bridal niece caused me to display my hope for her marriage on this card. I followed the color scheme in her upcoming wedding to represent the extremes of personality and show their marriage could be built on a solid force, giving it a good foundation. Nothing describes marriage better than the stark contrast of black and white being brought into unity by the accenting force of red.
In marriage, neither personalities actually change, yet they dance together because they build one life moving with a flexible love which desires each step to support the partnership. My ribbons represent the necessary times of transparency or compromise needed to keep the knot securely tied. Finally, it takes many baskets of love and the conscious distribution of heart to cause unity to grow and flourish to completion. Through marriage, two vastly different scripts are brought to the same page to compose a new story built on the gift of love.

Pink & Bashful Comfort

Finding this soft pastel pink pleasing to my eye with black/white DP, I decided to create a THANK YOU card to a new friend who has gone out of her way to make me feel comfortable in her craft group. The softness of pastel whispered thanks while the popping out of garden flowers brightened memories of a day recently spent with her colorful group. Because the Teddy speaks of the most cuddly unobtrusive dragged along friend, and is usually welcomed by everyone, so I hope this one gave the message of comfort I felt by her kindness, and relayed more than the simple words "thank you" could.

Skootch & Doodle's Village

Skootch & Doodle created a village for the “maggies” and friends. They spent the morning coloring each image with pencils, learning to outline and shade a little bit. Grandma drew a larger village including a church, and some more houses which added to the houses Doodle colored. We glued the village inside a shoebox and put velcro on the characters to move them about as we pleased. They also colored and attached a magnolia tree to the edge of the box to give some dimension.


Grandma was very happy when Skootch colored in the lines, although she was a little confused at blue faces! With lots of giggles and funny stories, they decided that blue faces were the little kids who had just finished finger painting at pre-school! Grandma could picture that mess and happily accepted the colored pencil look of little girls' imaginations!

Happy Anniversary 2

Another attempt with Copic coloring and enhancements on an anniversary card. The wall behind the couple brought in the blue of his suit, but I wanted the greeting to pop off the page, so I used the yellow and green to set it off from everything else on the card. The floral arrangement brought in the dainty hews of silks.


I made this card for my Marine brother and his wonderful wife of 30 years! The gift behind the card is in honor of his Marine service. More images of this project can be seen on my textile blog:
www.debi-peacebypiece.blogspot.com

Happy Anniversary

My sweet sister and hubby recently celebrated 31 years of marriage, giving me a another opportunity to create a "maggie" card.
This wedding couple is from Magnolia-licious Store and colored,or rather I should say, "I experimented with Copic sketch markers as I tried to decipher tones of whites and blacks used in wedding attire, yet keep the design archival soft and subtle. I learned that I like the softer shades of colors, almost a hint of color, rather that a solid burst.
Then I found storage containers full of enhancements of days long past on the shelves of my garage. I enjoyed putting it all together in browns and dusty rose.
Placing the words of a Bible verse inside gave me inspiration to say perfectly what I believe about their togetherness. I hope it made her smile and encouraged her to know that observing their marriage is a joy.

New & creative child play while thanking a friend...

Before leaving on a jet plane, I made "maggie" cards for my friends. This first card is my first attempt to color with Copic sketch markers. It was made for my new online friend. I met Peggy through "Magnolia-licious" yahoo group. We've become great friends and share bits and pieces of our daily routines and craft ideas. She encouraged me to stretch my creativity into new mediums of cut & color, add enhancements, and she even gave good advice on using Copics.
She's one very busy lady, and I wanted this card to remind her to enjoy her summer by taking special moments to enjoy her beautiful flower beds. I also sent this to her with love and appreciation for all her encouraging words and friendship.
For enhancements, I used felt flowered ribbon, separating the flowers to make the garden and adding paper leaves from Martha Stewards leaf punch, and black pom-poms for their centers. A touch of pearl made by another ribbon from Michaels.
As I made this card, my intention was to find creative and cheaper enhancements for my grand daughters to use when I taught them to design cards this summer. These ribbons were found in Michaels $BIN and can be used generously by little fingers.