Mind Wide Open Challenge - Serendipitous – if you will…

I received the email from Gail announcing she had posted the image for her September Mind Wide Open Challenge. I read her message and looked at the image quickly. I thought to myself, I’m not going to participate. But I didn’t delete it from my mailbox. I just was not in a mood to create anything. I was sad, depressed, in mourning, trying to cope with the sudden death of my little sister Judy. We had just celebrated her 60^th birthday in June. I won’t go into all the details of my sister’s health but she was constantly in pain. She wanted to do crafts and scrapbooking and she bought lots of embellishments and other crafting supplies over the years. Sadly, she barely created anything. After she passed away her daughters gave my other little sister, Jo, and I boxes of Judy’s craft supplies and fabrics. I brought them home and added them to my supply stash. 
Then on Wednesday while checking my email I looked at Gail’s image again and I thought about my sister, about all the things she didn’t get to create, and then I thought okay - let’s play.  I pulled the image into my Photoshop program. Something reminded me of the vintage set of alphabet flash cards I recently found at the Graphics Fairy (thanks Karen). I digitally merged and blended the alphabet letter ‘F’ flash card with its daisy flower image into Gail’s image and added the word ‘flower’. I kept thinking about my sister. I printed out the image and decided I would decorate the cover of a Dollar Tree Store composition book. I pulled out one of the boxes containing some of Judy’s supplies. I found the resin daisy flowers, the Rickrack, and the vine stickers she had purchased. I arranged and re-arranged the pieces, adding buttons, Stickles, more trim, and decorative papers to the front and back cover of the composition book. I printed another copy of the flash card, cut out the daisy flower, added a little color and glued it over the daisy on the image. Then I did some research for the poem on Gail’s image and found that the words are part of an old hymn.  I was stunned at first realizing what the words in the hymn actually meant. The second verse cinched it for me that I needed to participate in this challenge, and I knew it was all coming together. 
I took a few photos of the completed journal but I wasn’t happy with the way the pictures looked. A day later another box in my art supply area caught my eye. It was another box from my sister. I opened it and found it contained lots of packs with journaling words and letters. I was drawn to create the word ‘shine.’ The journal was complete, I took one more photo.

There are several versions to the hymn and the author is unknown to the best of my knowledge.  Here are the words I wrote inside the first page of the journal. 

“Is it raining, little flower?

Oh be glad of rain!

Too much sun would wither thee;

Soon ‘twill shine again.

Though the sky is black, ‘tis true,

Yet behind it shines the blue."

"Art thou weary tender heart?

Oh be glad of pain;

Sweetest things in sorrow grow.

As the flow’rs in rain.

God is watching, thou’lt have sun,

When the clouds their work have done."

Call it serendipity if you will. There is one more thing about the journal. My sister's oldest daughter's favorite flower is the daisy. I know who we made the journal for.

Thanks Gail!

The Domino Effect

According to Wikipedia the domino effect is a chain reaction that occurs when a small change causes a similar change nearby, which then will cause another similar change, and so on in linear sequence. The term is best known as a mechanical effect, and is used as analogy to a falling row of dominoes. It typically refers to a linked sequence of events where the time between successive events is relatively small.

A few weeks ago I made 4 domino pins and gave them away to some co-worker friends I hadn't seen in a while when we got together for lunch. They all seem to like my little gift and I really enjoyed making the pins and giving them away. Photos of my first domino pins are in my previous post. The mini set of dominoes came in a pack of 28.  I made more pins with the remaining 24 dominoes.

A week later my husband and I had lunch with another group of our friends. I wanted to give the ladies in our group one of my pins but I had a hard time deciding which of the 24 pins to choose for each of my friends.  I place all 24 of the pins in a cigar box then I decorated 4 match boxes to take along to our get together.  While we waited for our food to arrive at the table during our lunch I gave each of the ladies an empty but pretty match box. I told them that they could choose one of the pins to put in their box. They passed the box around the table and each one picked out a pin that they liked. I discovered I would have only chose one correctly.  They were delighted with the gifts and all of them elected to wear the pins immediately and slip the gift boxes into their handbags.  

I took the remaining 20 pins to a family gathering last week. There are 12 pins left.  I'm sure I'll give more away and I just might put a few in my Etsy shop. 

Oh, I bought the mini domino set at the dollar store. I did make a trip back to the store and purchased two more sets. I'm going to make more pins and I have some other ideas for what to do with dominoes besides game playing.

I'm going to share this post with my Pink Saturday Pals. If you haven't already please hop over to visit Beverly at How Sweet The Sound, our Pink Saturday hostess, and say hello and check out all the amazing blog links at her party.  Click here!

The flower decorations on the boxes are the paper bag flowers I made a few weeks ago and shared in a previous post. 

 Some  of the images and backgrounds are from Dezinaworld ,  Gecko Galz  and Lisa's Altered Art. 

If I missed anyone please let me know, I like to give credit. 

Dominoes

Playing with dominoes, mini dominoes.

I decorated a few to give as little pin favors to some friends recently. 

 Each one a wish for hope or joy. 

 Rather than wrap each of the mini dominoes 

I attached them to a lavender sachet.

 I enjoyed making these so much... .

Happy Pink Saturday!

Please say hello to our hostess Beverly at How Sweet The Sound. Click here!

Pink Saturday ~ Cup Cake Wars

Last Saturday my daughter treated us to some delicious cup cakes. These are not just ordinary cup cakes they are specialty cup cakes from a bakery called Ady Cakes. Ady the owner of Ady Cakes was a winner of the Food Network's Cup Cake Wars. Ady's cupcakes are baked fresh every day and she features certain flavors every day. She also makes seasonal flavors for each month. A great reason to keep going back at least monthly to try them all. Below are 6 delicious flavors we shared. They come packaged in a "pink box!"
Perfect for a Pink Saturday post. 
They were delicious! Click here to check out Ady Cake's Shop.

 Dulce de Leche, Mocha Espresso, Chocolate Mint, Pink Champagne, Chocolate,  and Chocolate Peanut butter

YUM!
Happy Pink Saturday - Click here to visit Beverly at How Sweet The Sound.

Pink Saturday Social

Time for another Pink Saturday Blog Social
Thanks to Beverly at How Sweet The Sound. 

This week nature has provide me with more pink and yellow colors for my post. Due to health problems we have not been keeping up with the maintenance on our country property and unfortunately weeds have overtaken a steep bank in our backyard. Fortunately however some weeds produce beautiful flowers like the wild daisies we had in the spring and most recently the pinkish/purple flowers blooming on the very tall, dangerously spiky, thistle plants. 

This week I've been thankful for the opportunity to have these weeds growing right outside my window because (unbeknownst to me) American Goldfinches love to eat thistle seed. We've been enjoying watching these gorgeous yellow and black birds pull out the plant down which they use for nesting material and devour the seeds.  We had been spraying the weeds with weed killer but we have stopped since seeing the birds.  The photo is a bit blurred but it's was the best I could get for now. I'm hoping to get a bit closer. 

Now there is a down-side to their activity too. As they pull out the down to get to the seeds a lot of seed sticks to the down as it falls to the ground. It's natures way of re-seeding to produce more thistle plants for next year. We have lived here over 40 years, but this is the first time we have had the pleasure of experiencing these natural beauties. 
Happy Pink Saturday my friends!

Mind Wide Open Challenge

Yeah!

Gail at Shabby Cottage Studio has re-launched her Mind Wide Open Blog and the monthly challenges. Here is the link. Each month she will post an image and she often includes an optional prompt word. The challenge is to create something with the image and submit photos of your finished piece to Gail by the due date. She will then post all the entries on the blog allowing anyone who visits to vote for their favorite entry. The person with the most votes wins a $20.00 shopping spree for the Shabby Cottage Studio Store. Here is the link to the store where you can check out all the amazing things Gail carries. I enjoy the challenges and I would love to win the shopping spree too.
This is the image Gail provided for the August challenge. A prompt word was included in the image background.

My entry is a double sided domino necklace. While I love the image Gail gave us to work with I thought the little fairy look so sad and I felt a need to give a reason for her sadness. I found a perfect little quote by Hans Christian Anderson that may explain what the fairy was pondering.

"Just living is not enough," said the butterfly fairy, "one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower." 

I also wanted a quotation for the back. I found one by Benjamin Franklin that I like and thought it worked well with my design using the butterfly mask. 

"Hide not your talents, they for use were made. What's a sundial in the shade?"

It would be so nice of you and I truly would appreciate it if you were to go visit the link here and vote for me. ((smiling))

Of course if you have entered your own piece into the challenge I understand you would want to vote for yourself. I Hope you enjoy your visit.

Making Flowers...

A pretty pink rose to honor Pink Saturday.

It's was made from a coffee filter that has been dyed with red food coloring.

 The mess above was used to create the blossoms below.

I enjoyed making these grungy style flowers from a brown lunch bag and a scrap of craft paper. I love the way they look. 

I want to thank Susie Jefferson at the 1st Floor Flat for the inspiration.

While visiting Susie during the Pink Saturday celebration last week I saw she had several videos posted on how to make paper flowers.

I made a note to go back and view them. I did just that and I was inspired to give flower making a try. My favorite technique is the one using the paper bag. Click here to see Susie's video post. 

Take the time to visit Beverly at How Sweet The Sound for another Saturday filled with Pink treats! Click here!

A Special Birthday And More Prayer Flags...

Happy Birthday to our Queen of Pink Saturday, Beverly!

Today is a milestone birthday for Beverly and she is hosting a special (yellow and pink) Pink Saturday Party to celebrate.

You see, Beverly's favorite color is yellow!

I created the birthday collage below for her using some images from Dezinaworld and some of my own photographs. 

Click here to visit Beverly at How Sweet The Sound, please be sure to wish her a happy day! 

Beverly prefers roses but I think she will like the color and look of these beautiful blossoms on my prickly pear plant. Do you wonder how something so gorgeous can come from such an ugly, thorny plant? 

Here are a few more prayer flags. 

  

This Little Light of Mine...

"This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine;

This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine,

Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine."

Marcia at The Shop Around The Corner is hosting a celebration of Light Blog Party called Snow In July. When She announced her white - light theme for the celebration I had no idea what I wanted to post to participate. However, this song would not leave me and I knew I had to use it for my part in the celebration.

The song is a Negro spiritual. It's a favorite of mine I remember singing often in Sunday school and Bible school classes. The YouTube video is the African Children's Choir singing and dancing celebrating and sharing their little lights. 

Speaking of sharing - I've seen the following quote by Joy J. Golliver posted several times recently and feel it too needed to be included in my tribute to Marcia's Celebration Of Light.  

"The meaning of life is to find your gift.

The purpose of life is to give it away. "

I'm certain the scripture verses below were inspiration for both the song lyrics and the quote above. 

"Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Matthew 5: 15-16
I have been gifted with a love for creating things. I also love giving things away. 
Have you heard of Art Abandonment? If you have not click on the name and the link will take you to the Face Book page where you can learn more about the group. I know many of you are among the almost 5000 current members. A month ago I abandoned two tags that I made. It was so much fun. I don't know if they were found, enjoyed and kept and it doesn't matter. I only hope they brought a little sunshine to the finders. 
Another new project that I recently learned about is making Prayer Flags. I received an email newsletter from Gail at Shabby Cottage Studio - Creative Workshops announcing she was thanking her students/customers with a free on-line class. A class on making the prayer flags. Click here to find out more about Creative Workshops and find the link to Gail. She has lots of free tutorials on her Shabby Cottage Studio blog as well.  The basic idea of a prayer flag is hang it outside and let the winds carry your prayers, messages, or sentiments through the universe. Click here to read more about prayer flags and the Prayer Flag Project.  I'm not a member of this group currently. I may join in with their group in the future.

I'm in the process of making several prayer flags to give away and I'd like to keep at least one for my own garden. I only have two completed so far. I'm giving these flags to two friends and I'm going to abandon the tag. 
This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine...
 

There are two photos of the tag, because it's a double sided tag. I decided to use a color background for the scripture side of the tag. You'll notice a splash of pink surrounding the edges. I do enjoy participating in Pink Saturday with Beverly at How Sweet The Sound. Click here to visit her blog. The image of the child carrying a lantern is from Dezinaworld. The sheet music is from www.makingmusicfun.com 

Grab your favorite beverage and put on your sunglasses you're about to be treated to an awesome Celebration of Light as you visit the links I'm sharing.

Sunshine Mail and Little Things...

You probably have heard the saying, "It's the little things that count." It's true.  This little tin arrived the other day from my friend Cindy Adkins at Whimsical Musings. The tin is little but Cindy's thoughtful gift is big. It brought me what I call sunshine mail. A beautifully decorated Altoids tin which included cinnamon (pink colored) flavored mints. Click here to visit Cindy's post to read about her inspiration for the collage on the tin. I'm not sure if Cindy knows about this but inside the tin the mints are enveloped in a wrapper.  Altoid's includes a message on the wrapper or as they refer to it as a Curiously Strong Fact: Altoids were once used to ease everything from stomach ailments to raven attacks.  I do have an on-going digestive system problem and the challenge Cindy entered required the piece to include something with wings or about wings. I wonder if Cindy planned that too? 

More sunshine mail arrived from another friend, Marcia at The Shop Around The Corner. Click here to visit Marcia and her sweet shop. She just gives away her gorgeous tags.  Here are the beautiful flip flops she sent to me. Special little tags that bring me big joy.

The little sticker below didn't come in the mail. I found it stuck fast to my computer desk. It's a sticker from an apple my husband had for a snack. He thought of me and my Pink Saturday Posts. A little thing that means a lot.

Happy Pink Saturday Everyone!

Click here to visit Beverly at How Sweet The Sound, our Pink Saturday hostess.  

WAIT!

More sunshine mail arriving today just in time to celebrate the Red, White and Blue, Pink Saturday theme. The gorgeous tag and goodies below are from Mercedes at All Things Pretty. Mercedes and I were swap partners for the July monthly tag swap held by Tee at The Altered  Paper. 

Click here to visit Mercedes and click here to visit Tee. 

If you do not know all of these awesome ladies I hope to take the time to visit each of them. They are all very talented and they have become wonderful, supportive, fun, friends.

Thank you, Paul, Cindy, Marcia, Tee, Beverly and Mercedes, it means a lot.