Auf Wiedersehen

My older daughter began attending Awana at Westlake Bible Fellowship 3 years ago. it was then that we met a truly amazing group of believers. WBF is a new testament church. They are not associated with any official church or denomination. They do not have any full time staff. They model their church after the church in the book of Acts. God is with them and they are doing an excellent job of following his lead.

We attended Awana at another church but they did hot have the junior high program. My daughter wanted to continue on so we found Westlake. Shorty after my younger daughter began attending there as well.

I didn't realize how much WBF had become part of my life. I would sometimes help with snacks or listen to verses. I began to know the people there and although was not all that close to any o them was comfortable with all of them.

In the fall of 2010 - partially because of our excitement about the Awana program - our home church, Trinity, began an Awana program of their own. However as was recommended by the missionary they did not start with a high school class. They were advised to "grow" one as the clubbers entered high school. My older daughter needed a high school class so we stayed at Awana at WBF even though Tom was the commander at Trinity Awana.

Starting in the fall of 2011 there will be a high school class at Trinity so the girls have chosen to attend there. It wasn't until I realized that I would not be seeing the people I have spent every Sunday night with for 3 years that I realized just how much I was going to miss them.

So the Awana awards ceremony this year was bittersweet. I knew that we would be back or VBS and were welcome to drop in any time. But I also made sure that I got pictures of Emily with her leaders at the ceremony

Awana Awards

Yet another year of Awana has ended. I can't believe that it has been 13 years for Eva and 6 for Emily. I still remember when they were Cubbies, but they are not any more.

This year was Eva's first year in Journey. It changes that were wrought by entering high school.

Emily completed her first book in Truth and Training (aka. T&T). In addition to finishing the book, she also earned all the Silver and Gold. She was the only one of any of the kids to do so.

Something New

I have been scrapping for well over a decade and it still amazes me the way that this hobby keeps evolving. I am still learning how to do new and different things. I had read about shaker boxes for years, but until I was challenged to do one, I had never bothered. The challenge had a very nice tutorial that I read over but then typically, I went and figured out how I could do it myself.

By far the hardest part of making this shaker box was to get the "filling" I knew that I wanted the parts of a watch (or something that looked like it) I had an old watch that would fit the bill, but I had to pry the back off and take it apart without watchmakers tools. Holy Cow! Those screws are small!

To make the shaker box I used a Tim Holtz stamp that had a distinctive part in it - that was my base for the box. In this it was the smaller circle within the clock.

I stamped another image of the clock on the same paper and then cut out the circle and its center leaving me with a ring.

Using that ring, I cut a piece of clear acrylic and adhered it to the top of the ring. I adhered the acrylic over the ring.

Once all the pieces were made, I used my hot glue gun to trace the small clock on the stamp. While it was still wet, I put in my cogs and gears. I then gently pressed the ring onto the stamped image. I didn't want to press too hard because of course it was the glue that was making the sides of the box and giving the whole embellishment dimension.

After it dried I put a layer of stickles over the ring and I had my perfect embellished shaker box.

Tie the Knot

I heard this somewhere, but alas, I don't know where. I just love the idea so I want to pass it along here as well.

I have always had a difficult time making knots or bows on my projects. They were too bulky, I didn't have enough ribbon to make a bow, I warped the project getting enough ribbon to tie, the knot or bow was not where I wanted it. In short I tried to avoid using tied ribbon if at all possible. Then, I discovered this and I can now put ribbon on any project and have a perfect bow or knot.

The first step is to adhere the ribbon to the project. I will adhere mine at the ends just in case I want to move something. I will then place another piece of the same ribbon where I want it tied.

After that I tie the knot or make the bow. I make sure that the ribbon I am working with is long enough to make the size bow or knot that I want. The great part about this is that if the placing is not exactly where I want it, I can just slide the knot up or down to where I want it to be.

And here is a sample of the ribbon tied onto a card

Proofreaders wanted

My son uses a virtual school. Throughout the year they have opportunities to go on "live" field trips. There is one that he is not interested in doing - GROSS ANATOMY LAB TOUR at the UNIVERSITY OF TOLEDO. I am rather sad because it sounds like it would be VERY interesting to me, but my son is not interested in the least. I don't think that they would appreciate a parent coming without a student.

The tour description follows: Each year we take tours through the lab where students and parents learn about the human anatomy guided by medical students. The HUMAN CADAVERS are donated by gracious people who wanted to help students with their medical careers. The University of Toledo opens these tours up for younger students as well and this is where you can be a part of this tour!

This sounds like it would be right up my alley but the better part is later in their letter. After the description of the tour they include this statement, "Students will receive goody bags from the University and a handy gift from OHVA for attending the tour"

Hmmmmm students touring basically a morgue and they will receive "goody bags" I can just hear it now.

"Hey mom look, I got a spleen!"

"That is terriffic, Johnny. What did you get Mary?"

" I got an an eyeball and a finger - I like the spleen better. Want to trade?"

Oops, my bad. they said that they would all be "handy" goody bags. I wonder whether it was the right or the left one.

April is here and spring is coming (although it is taking its good sweet time doing it) To honor springtime as something different than snow and cold I chose a different orientation for the card this time.

The paper I used is 9x8. when it is folded in half lengthwise, the card is 9 x4 - which means that it fits perfectly into a standard business size envelope. The large block is perfect for a larger stamp image or as I used, a wordsworth vellum sticker.

Yet another sketch

Tammy, the owner of Cookin' Up Creations asked me as one of the DT alumni to post a challenge with a sketch and a tutorial today. I jumped at the chance to do it. The tutorial I chose is for the paper rose that was posted earlier this month on my blog. I loved the flower so much that rather than use someone else's sketch, I made my own so I could showcase my flower. Here is the sketch:

I was also asked to make a sample using the sketch. I knew just the pictures that I wanted to use. It was of "the girls" at the New Year's Eve party. They were all dressed wonderfully so I had a picture of them all together. I kept the layout simple to focus on the pics and on the rose. Here it is: