Red Wolf

Materials needed:
In Wilderness stamp set SU (#120537)
Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set SU
Gray card stock 4 1/4 x 5/1/2"
White card stock 4 x 5 1/4", 2"square, small scrap
Red card stock 2 1/4" square
Versa Mark ink pad
Heat tool
Cherry Cobbler embossing powder SU (122949)
Cadmium Red Deep acrylic paint
Cadmium Yellow medium acrylic paint
brush
Cherry Cobbler ink pad SU
Regals Candy Dots SU (#130932)
Word Window punch SU
Stampin' Dimensionals SU

1. Paint the white card stock like was done here.
2. Emboss the small white square of card stock with the wolf head using Cherry Cobbler embossing powder. Versa Mark ink and a heat tool.
3. Mount the embossed square onto the red card stock square. Use Stampin' Dimensionals or other dimensionals (SU are my favorite) on the dried painted card stock.
4. Stamp  your greeting from Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set with Cherry Cobbler ink on white card stock. Punch it out with the Word Window punch.
5. Place two dark red Candy Dots on each side of the greeting and adhere it to the bottom right side of the painted card stock. You can use red brads, if you prefer.
6. Mount the painted card stock on to the gray card stock. Mount this onto a card base and add your own greeting on the inside.
This is a great card for a man.  

Victorian Birthday Card

Well, bringing the flu B back from my trip to Tanzania has really thrown me for a loop! I hadn't gotten the flu in probably 30 years, since I started taking the flu shot. They said that this year the flu mutated and the shot wasn't as effective. I really felt bad for a couple of weeks. I'm doing a lot better now but I still have that lingering cough!

Here's a card I made for some of my July birthdays.

Materials needed:

White card stock 5 1/2 x 8 1/2" scored and folded at 4 1/4"

Lost Lagoon card stock SU! 4 x 5 1/4"

Pink stripe patterned paper 3 3/4 x 5"

Dazzles stickers by Hot Off the Press

Birthday stamp, Vintage Rose Garden stamp set by Jennifer Ellory

Whisper White 5/8" Ribbon Organza SU (#114319)

Lost Lagoon stamp  pad SU

Ticket corner punch

Glue Dots

Stampin' Dimensionals SU

This card is simple to assemble after you cut your papers to size. 

1.Punch all four corners of the Lost Lagoon card stock and the patterned paper with the ticket corner punch. 

2. Stick the lacy stickers across the patterned paper about 1" from the bottom and wrap around to the back.

3. Adhere about 6" of the ribbon just below the stickers on the patterned paper and wrap around the back also. 

4. Use about 6" of the ribbon to tie a bow and place on top of the other ribbon with glue dots. I used 3 to get it to hold in place good.

5. Stamp the greeting with Lost Lagoon ink across the top of the patterned paper.

6. Place Stampin' Dimensionals or other dimensionals on the back of the patterned paper. Adhere it to the Lost Lagoon card stock.

7. Adhere this to the white, folded card stock.

Add a greeting or note to the inside and you are ready for a birthday.

More Pictures of Tanzania

The past couple of weeks, since I've been home, have been wild! I went to the doctor on Monday morning, June 8 with what I thought was a respiratory infection, like I used to get all the time when I was still in the classroom. I was waiting on lab work when I almost passed out. Everyone seemed to go crazy. They said they had a place I could lie down until my turn for my labs. That sounded good to me. Well, they called for a doctor who called 911 for an ambulance. I would have thought that I was at a place where they could take care of a 911 call. They took me to the ER, where I spent most of the day before they decided to admit me to the hospital for observation. They kept me 24 hours & released me. The next day they called to tell me that I had influenza B and gave me a prescription for tamiflu. What I figured out was that when I said that yes, I had been to Africa in the past 21 days, they went crazy. I know, it's better to be safe than sorry but if they had just treated me for what I went to see a doctor about in the first place, it all would have been Ok. Well, the flu can make you feel pretty rotten for a while but I'm doing much better now. I'm reasonably sure that I picked it up on the 20 hour plane ride and I could have even gotten it at Wal-Mart!

OK, here are some more pictures of the trip.

Every place we went the children sang for us. These boys really put on a good show! 

After the shoeboxes had been handed out and the programs were over, there was lots of music playing, either from local musicians or from a cd player. Calvin had the microphone and was singing and dancing with the music. He asked me to dance with him and he sang to me. It was in Swalli so I don't know what the words were but it was fun and happy. I danced with him even though I have no rhythm and on my part didn't really look like any dance but we were all having fun in the Lord.

I asked this young lady what her favorite thing in her shoebox was.She is holding up a cross necklace that she was very proud of.

All of the children were so cute!

I took these pictures from the second floor of one of the churches. This is considered a middle class neighborhood. Very different than a middle class neighborhood you would find here in the US.

This is looking at one of The Greatest Journey books in the class that we watched. The children were here learning on a Saturday. They were all very well behaved.

Shoebox Distribution trip to Tanzania

I got home Wednesday evening after flying for a total of 20 hours! This was an amazing trip. We went to 6 different churches with 5 distributions of shoeboxes and one The Greatest Journey lesson. The children were beautiful! I fell in love with Tanzania. Here are a few pictures of the trip. You will see that the girls all have shaved heads. I asked about that and was told the the schools required it. It did make it a little hard to tell the girls from the boys when we handed out the boxes.

Perhaps later, I'll be able to most more pictures!

I've had people ask me about things like stocking caps and gloves before. They are concerned that they will go to a hot country and not be used. Well, Tanzania is on the equator and the kids loved the caps that they got! It's all relative. Some of the children were cold and wearing sweaters. They had recently had a "cold" spell where the temps got down in the lower 80's. They were cold because they were not used to that.

One of this boy's gifts was a remote control car. The giver even added plenty of extra batteries. I was very difficult to get it out of the box. I tried the best that I could but the box had the car attached with screws on the bottom. No one had a screw driver. I just hope that he was able to find one after he left because we were not able to get it out that day. Please, watch how your gifts are packaged. If the gift is in original packaging, please check to see if it can be taken out. The items in the shoebox do not have to be in original packaging. Please be sure the children can get the toy out to play with. Boxes and plastic packages are not necessary.

They were all amazed at the gifts in their boxes. This boy is showing off the flashlight that he found in his box.

They wear uniforms to school. Some of them were a bit ragged. The schools let the children have some time out to come get a shoebox.

Victorian Lady Pearls and Lace

I always enjoy doing a card that is especially feminine. I like the nice soft colors, the spring tones, and just the frillyness of them. And I'm not even that frilly of a person myself! I just like doing that kind of card. Plus, using watercolor pencils is one of my favorite coloring mediums.

Materials needed:
Hot Off the Press Victorian Lady stamp set
Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set SU!
Dazzles border stickers, Hot Off the Press
Shades of Spring patterned paper, SU! 4 x 5 1/4"
Melon Mambo card stock 4 1/4 x 5 1/2'
Crushed Curry card stock 1 x 4"
Marina Mist card stock 2 1/2 x 4"
Word Window punch
Marina Mist ink
Basic Pearls
Watercolor pencils
Aqua pen

After you have the pieces cut out, this card is just simple assembly. Start from the bottom with the Melon Mambo and work your way up. It's really an easy card.

Stick Puppets

I have a friend who makes beautiful finger puppets for her shoe boxes. I tried that. Mine just left something to be desired! I guess I just don't want to put that much time in something that small. Nothing wrong with it. The kids who get her shoe boxes get some really cool things but mine shoe boxes have good things too!
These stick puppets are really easy to make & are super cute too.  They cost a little less than 5 cents to make these, don't take a lot of time and you can put them in a lot of shoe boxes.

Materials needed:

craft/popcicle sticks

foam animal stickers

baby powder

A couple of weeks ago, I was in Michael's and found a tub of foam animals. They were on sale at 40% off plus I had a coupon for an extra 20% off of my entire purchase including sale items.

This is by Creatology and has over 200 foam stickers in the container. In addition to the ones that I've shown, the container also had flamingos, elephants, and hippos. I would suggest that you put the tigers in boxes for the 5-9 year old children instead of the 2-4. They might scare the little ones.

Choose the animal you want. Peel the backing off. It is very sticky so don't lay it down on something that it could stick to.

Place the craft stick on the back of the animal. I usually put it over one of the front legs and part of the body.

To remove the sticky from the rest of the sticker, you will sprinkle or dip it into baby powder.

Hold the sticker over a lid and sprinkle baby powder all over it. After the first one, you will have baby powder in the lid so you can just rub it in the powder. Be sure that the powder cover all of the back, even up close to the craft stick. Shake the excess powder into the lid and you are finished.

You can put 3-5 in a box or you can put a whole set of all the animals in your box. This will make over 200 of these little puppets so plan on packing more than one shoe box! Remember, every shoe box is a gospel opportunity for a child somewhere in the world. 

I am super excited right now. On Wednesday, I will begin my journey to hand out shoe boxes. I get to go on a shoe box distribution to Tanzania. When I get home, I will post pictures and info about my trip here and on my facebook page. I'm looking forward to being able to tell you how shoe boxes change lives for Jesus!

Paint and Glimmer

I had fun doing this card. I always like to smear paint around on things. lol I think that this gives you a unique card that no one can copy exactly. It makes it your very own!

 Materials needed:
Acrylic paints, I used Cadmium Yellow, Cerulean Blue Hue, and Cadmium Red Deep Hue
Palette knife
Wild Wasabi card stock 4 1/4 x 5 1/2"
Lost Lagoon card stock 2 x 2 1/2"
Daffodil Delight card stock 2 1/4 x 2 3/4"
White card stock
Glimmer card stock 4 1/4 x 5 1/2" cut in half diagonally
Lost Lagoon ink
Silver patterned brad by Paper Studios
White and silver twine
Perfect Punches stamp set
Butterfly stamps
Stampin' Dimensionals

1. Squeeze a bit of 2 or 3 color of acrylic paints onto a palette or paper plate. Use the palette knife to swish the paints on to the white card stock, one color at a time. If you use blue and yellow, you will probably end up with some green strips on the card. Allow the paint time to dry completely. I let mine dry overnight.
**You can paint on a larger sheet and then cut it down to 4 x 5 1/4" when it is dry or you can paint on the exact size of card stock that you will use. I painted on a little bit larger piece and then I could cut off where I left too much white.

 You can do this several times to see which you like the best or you can make several cards with this idea.

2. Cut the glimmer paper in half, diagonally from tip to tip, as you see in the  picture.

 3.  Adhere the triangle of glimmer paper to the 4 1/4 x 5 1/2" piece of Wild Wasabi card stock.

4. After the painted card stock is completely dry, cut it to be 4 x 5 1/4." Adhere it to the top of the glimmer paper and card stock allowing edges of the papers to show.

5. Stamp your greeting on the small square of Lost Lagoon card stock in Lost Lagoon ink. Adhere this onto the yellow square. 

6. Punch a hole in the top left corner and add your brad.

7. Adhere this greeting piece to the top right corner of the card.

8. Wrap about 42" of twine that has a thread of silver running through it around the card 5 times. Adhere the twine to the back of the card.

 9. Stamp butterflies onto white card stock in Lost Lagoon ink. Cut out close to the wings. Apply Stampin' Dimensionals to the back of the butterflies and place on the bottom of the card.

 Adhere the card front to a white card stock back and add a note or greeting to the inside.