More Virtual Stamp Night!

Hello Stamping Friends!

I have two cards today, both made yesterday.  I hope to stamp some more today, but I just got home from a church event (Chili Cook-off!) and I am exhausted!  Not that I cooked...my husband did.  *wink* I am probably tired because of the goofy time change.  I want that hour back!

This week's Shine Your Light Challenge at the ODBD blog is a color challenge featuring pastels.  I must admit, I was deep in my Virtual Stamp Night mode when I decided that I should try to complete this challenge also.  The VSN challenge was called Hidden Treasures, and we were to think of garden things, like flowers that hidden in a bulb before they spring up.  My card uses daffodils, but instead of coloring them, I used my acrylic blocks to make a color block background.  This is also another Friday Mashup #200 card...as a reminder that YOU can play along!  I combined FM 117 (Tic Tac Toe, using ribbon, pearls and flowers) and FM123 to use acrylic block stamping.  

I dug through a stack of card bases in retired SU colors, and found one in pale plum.  I added a layer of wisteria wonder, which is embossed with the elegant lines embossing folder. On whisper white, I used various blocks to stamp pool party, pretty in pink, pistachio pudding, and crisp cantaloupe inks.  My sentiment and flowers are both from a long retired SU set, called "Beautiful Life."  They are stamped in Stazon jet black.  I rounded my corners, and added basic pearls and some pistachio ruffled ribbon.  I remember buying these stamps...I fell in love with the life-affirming sentiment.  I do believe Life is Good...and it all comes from God!  (There's my brief Sunday sermon!)

Next, I have a large and very different card.  Sabrina gave us a VSN challenge to use a map.  I don't have any map stamps.  Since the overall theme is "I Treasure You" I picked a map of a place I really treasure...Rome Italy!  I downloaded the map, and chose card stock to coordinate.  I think this is ballet blue...maybe brocade blue?  Not sure.  My black is embossed with the square lattice folder.  I used a strip of pear pizzazz pattern paper.  Using my Word Bubble framelits and the Just Sayin' stamps, I added my true feelings...I do miss Rome!  My husband and I went there in 2013 for our 20th anniversary.  The red brads mark several of the places we visited, including St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, where i got a HUG from the Pope!  Very fun to reminisce!

No Friday Mashup on this card...but maybe I'll try again later tonight!

Thanks for stopping by!

Inky {{{HUGS}}}

Kim

Those Silly Online Quizzes

It seems I have learned a lot about myself lately, all thanks to Facebook, PlayBuzz, and some other sites I cannot remember.

• The movie that is based on my life?  "Brave," because I have found my passion in life and will do anything to pursue it.  That would be prolife work!
• Which Disney song is my anthem?  "Be Our Guest" (Beauty & the Beast)...well I do like to entertain.
• What natural phenomenon am I?  A storm.  Oh boy!  I do believe that one is pretty accurate...some people love me, some people are scared of me.
• I should have been born in the 1950's...since my creativity and innovations would be so helpful.  Hmmm, not sure about that one.
• Which children's book is about me?  "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein.  I sure hope so!
• Which Star Wars character am I?  I honestly don't remember.  It wasn't Jar-Jar Binks, which is, apparently, a good thing.
• Which leading man should I marry?  Sidney Poitier.  As wonderful as he is, I'm quite smitten with my real-life husband, Bruce.
• What should my career be?  Writing...hmmm.  I better get to work on that.

Now, of course, I do not put much stock in these silly things.  I doubt anyone does.  They are fun, quirky time-fillers.  Change one answer, and you could come up with a completely different result.  I just saw that anyone can create any of these quizzes.  No wonder there are so many!

banner from eCatholicwebsites.com

I did take one quiz that asked which Bible character am I most like.  My result was the Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus.  Ummm, wow.  I am almost embarrassed to write that here, because I can't even come close!  Mary had remarkable faith and patience.  Me?  Well, I'm working on it!  I certainly believe Mary is an important role model for all of us.  When the Angel Gabriel came to her, she said "Let it be done to me according to your word."  As she visited Elizabeth, she sang her heart out in praise to God: "My soul rejoices in the Lord!"  And as she was talking with people at the wedding feast in Cana, she pointed everyone to her Son, "Do whatever He tells you to do."

For me, I find myself saying "Do whatever You want with my life Lord...but can I put in a few requests?"  I do, often, sing and speak the praises of God to anyone who will listen.  But I am also all too quick to gripe to anyone who will listen.  Arthritic pain?  Job stress?  Cafeteria Catholics?  Yep, I am passionate, but unfortunately that just means I am very expressive about positive and negative things.  (Remember that storm reference above?)  I need to learn to keep some things quiet!  And when it comes to complete submission to Jesus, I'd like to think I would do whatever He tells me to do.  But let's face it.  I am painfully human, and I mess up.  We all are. Thank God, literally, that He loves us any way!

Painting by Julius Schnorr Von Carolsfeld

All this to say, that those goofy quizzes are just that...goofy.  If any of us really want to get to know ourselves, it won't happen through a series of 12 questions which include celebrity faces we don't recognize.  It must come through prayer and quiet time alone with God.  It will come through the inspiration of the Saints who have gone before us...found in Scripture and two thousand years of heroic men and women from around the world.  I may not feel like I measure up, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't try.  I'll start by stepping away from PlayBuzz, and into Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John!

Blessings,
Kim