Happy New Year and Favorite Posts

Hello, friends, and happy new year! 2013 brought many wonderful memories and changes, and they are all good. God continues to bless me beyond what I deserve. Thank you for joining me on my blog this past year and may 2014 bring more inspiration and crafty goodness to our lives. It has been my tradition to post my favorite posts at the end of the year. So here goes... 

• I enjoyed Les Miserables so much that I jotted down some thought-provoking themes from the movie.
• My Grandpa's amazing story is not just one of this year's, but my all-time favorite posts.
• The paper crafting community gave out a sweet and humongous farewell to Cath of the MoxieFab World blog fame. 
• This year's devastating typhoon Haiyan that affected my home country, the Philippines, made me reflect on how thankless we, who are rich compared to most of the world, could be sometimes. Please continue to pray for those affected by the typhoon. Though they may not dominate the news anymore, their struggles for survival continues.
• I started something that I've been wanting to do for a while - opening an etsy shop!
• A bittersweet post as we said goodbye to The Craft's Meow and the life lessons learned in trusting in a good God who doesn't disappoint.

I became a DecoArt blogger contributor and Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L ambassador this year. I continued on with my product design work with Spellbinders, Penny Black and Want2Scrap. It's so fun and count it as a tremendous blessing to work with companies whose products I already love! I also started dabbling with mixed media this year and really enjoy it. No wonder that many of my favorite projects this year fall under this category style:

InLinkz.com

Finally, here are some great articles, some of which are helpful as we prepare to face the new year:

• Did you buy your child an Iphone or any mobile device this year? Then, you should read THIS.
• The Most Courageous Resolution for 2014
• How to Read the Whole Bible
• Pray For Your Daughter 31-Day Challenge
• 18 Things I Will Not Regret Doing with My Kids (also, wife and husband) 
• 40 Resolutions to Consider Making
• 4 Godly Disciplines Unique to this Decade
• In light of the previous link, I really like this article on humblebragging.
• When Nothing Created Everything

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Christmas Thank You

I apologize for being absent here. Christmas just kind of crept up on me and was so busy with travels, cooking, baking and hosting. It's been a long time since we spent the holidays with family, so this year has been a real blessing to us! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, full of wonderful memories.

I have a thank you card today that uses some holiday papers, City Sidewalks, by Pink Paislee. I inked the ephemera elements before adhering. I used lots of Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L here.

The sentiment is by Penny Black. The border is cut using Spellbinders Classic Scallop Edgeabilities. I adhered Want2Scrap pearls on the top corners of the Main Street card and the sentiment banner. This is a good idea for using up your Christmas papers.

Have a great weekend. I'm sure we'll be hitting the theaters with my girls and looking forward to a relaxing time.

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Penny Black Merry Christmas Card

I have a quick post for you today. We have a busy weekend up ahead. One of my kids has a piano recital tonight while the other two will go caroling with the young people from church at the Retirement Home nearby. We're also hosting the youth afterwards for a Christmas party and watching the Hobbit movie. I can't wait to see the new one, but I have already forgotten much of what happened in the first movie! :) Tomorrow, our church is hosting the Women's Christmas party and I'll be speaking on "Jesus in the Eyes of Mary." It's been a great study and I can't wait to share with the ladies tomorrow. 

Today's card is somewhat CAS. I simply stamped the village from Penny Black's Winter Village stamp set with ink to coordinate with my Kraft cardstock. The border is die cut using Spellbinders' Classic Scallop Edgeabilities and Insert.

The white sentiment is SRM Stickers. I embellished the buildings using some Want2Scrap pearls. And finally, some Twinery twine to match the border patterned paper.

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Merry Christmas House

I have a very red card for your today using my Penny Black Merry and Happy stamp set and my favorite Want2Scrap products. The papers are by Pink Paislee.

I painted the Want2Scrap chipboard house with DecoArt Gesso. I embellished it with the W2S heart bling. More bling is added on the bottom.

Have a great hump day! :)

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Embellished Vintage Christmas Tags

Happy Monday! I hope you are all staying warm. I've been reading many updates on FB about snow all over the place. Thankfully, we haven't had any here! I am an island person through and through. Even though I haven't lived in one in so long, I'm still "allergic" to cold :). I do enjoy watching snow fall, esp when I craft, but only if I stay home.

My projects today are embellished tags that I shared on the Want2Scrap blog last week. You can get the free pritnable tags HERE. And the complete supplies and instructions can be found HERE.

This is it for me today, friends. We have a busy week ahead: lots of guests, parties, exams and concerts! I'm teaching at our church's Women's Christmas party this coming Saturday (if you're local and would like to join us, email me and I'll send you info) and I'm loving the extra study time in God's Word. As I shared on FB: When studying the Christ of Christmas, I don't know which is more awe-inspiring: His divinity and equality with God the Father in all essence, or that He was fully human like us.
 
And I will leave you with this beautiful verse:
"We have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, ...For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." ~Hebrews 4:14-16

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DIY Quick and Easy Watercolored Card Set (Free Download)

Hello, friends. I have something new today that I've been working on. If you follow my blog regularly, you  know how much I've been enjoying mixed media projects. One thing I like to do is watercolor the backgrounds. I have found that as much as I enjoy watercoloring, my papers don't always work well with this medium. I have to use the thick cardstock that tends to be a little costly. I also have to wait for my watercolored backgrounds to dry and often need to flatten them between pages of a heavy book.

I thought, why not make a digital watercolor background that I can simply print out in varieties of colors, so I can skip the tedious process of watercoloring. This is what I came up with. I printed these out on regular cardstock (Walmart's Georgia brand, more specifically). I simply trimmed them and matched them with my cardstocks.

I then heat embossed Penny Black's Tweet, Tweet flower image, added the sentiments (from The Craft's Meow), bow and Want2Scrap bling. I mounted the front panel using SA by 3L foam squares.

I made this set in less than 30 minutes. How would you like to make these yourself? They're perfect for holiday gifting. I have two of the colors as a free download for you. The first two cards above use these. Just click on the photo below to download:

I have made 14 colors total. The other 12 are available for purchase on my ETSY store. I hope you will check them out. Included are these trendy colors: Orchid (the new Pantone 2014 Color of the Year), Corn, Dusty Rose, Emerald, Green, Gray, Honeysuckle, Kraft, Orange, Hot Pink, Red, Turquoise. The other colors I used on my cards above are the Red and Green.

 

Have a great, crafty weekend, friends!

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Thank you and Free Printable Vintage Tags

Thank you so much for the many emails and comments I received regarding The Craft's Meow's closing (by the way, the sale is still going on). As I said in my previous post, though I am sad that TCM is going away, it couldn't have come at a better time for me. I have been busy with mom-stuff, more specifically, preparing to home school mama-stuff. I've never done this full-time, so I'm a little nervous. My oldest only has a few years at home before she goes off to college and start her new adventures sans mom and dad. It hurts just to even write about it, but we have to let them go sometime, don't we?

Anyway, I'm not going away completely just yet. I still do some product design for Penny Black, Spellbinders and Want2Scrap. I just won't be doing monthly release hops as I did with TCM. I may actually have more time just to enjoy my hobby. And I am really into making designs for download, e.g. cut files, digital papers, etc. You can check out my Etsy store where I will be sharing some things I've been working on.

Speaking of digital files, I have new freebies for you today as a way to say thanks for your encouraging words. I used images from The Graphics Fairy. Click on the photo below to download the high resolution version, without the watermark, for printing. Watch out for my post on the Want2Scrap blog on Thursday where I will share a mini tutorial embellishing these holiday tags.

Terms of Use:

© Nina Brackett. All Rights Reserved. FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. Please don't share the file, but direct your friends to my site. Email me if you have any questions.

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A Farewell Hop

This is a bittersweet hop as the TCM team says goodbye to The Craft's Meow. It's bitter for me because it's always hard to say goodbye to something that has been a big part of my crafting life the last two years. I will miss the regular interaction with the team and the excitement of seeing the new stamp designs coming up. It has been a privilege to see the DT's beautiful handiwork applied to my designs. I'm truly thankful for each of them.

This is also a sweet moment not just for me, but also for Lisa, the owner of TCM. Lisa is about to embark on a new chapter of her professional life that necessitates the change. And I support her wholeheartedly as she faithfully obeys God's direction.

For me, TCM's closing comes at an opportune time. God's timing is always perfect. My family and ministry life is taking up more time than ever and I welcome the change. (I'm not going away completely though, since I still do product design for other companies.) And I couldn't be happier for Lisa as she pursues what she believes God is leading her to. It is an exciting place to be! Not because of the unknown, but because we get to practice our trust in Him. We get to put into action our faith in a benevolent God who sees the bigger picture of our lives.

Now, onto today's projects. I have 2 cards that show how I feel today. The first card is for all the TCM fans out there who have joined us in this journey. Thank you for your support and sharing the joys of new stamps and using them to brighten somebody's day. I used the Chalkboard Birthday stamp set. The papers and lace stickers are by Hot Off the Press and bling by Want2Scrap.

My second card is for all those affected by TCM's closing more directly: Lisa, the illustrators, designers and others. What a fitting word of encouragement as we look ahead to the future, knowing that God is there all the way and His promises are ever true. I used Chalkboard Faith for the main sentiment.

Saying goodbye to TCM is bittersweet indeed, but I think the sweet could prove to be more important, and definitely longer lasting, than the bitter part because God is in it and He never, ever disappoints. 

If you came from the talented Lindsay Amrhein's blog, then you're at the right place. TCM is closing its doors at the end of December. All stamp sets have been marked down by as much as 75%! Stock is limited... once it's gone, it's gone for good, so please shop early for the best selection. All orders of $25 or more will receive a free gift with purchase. Flat rate shipping is $3.00 for all US orders and $12 for all International orders. Please see the store blog for details, or click over to The Craft's Meow store to start shopping!And from here, you need to stop by sweet Larissa Heskett's blog.

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