Christ's Bell

My Mom recently sent me this email...I do believe it is a keeper.

Christ’s Bell
Someone took a lot of time doing this.


THE BELL
I KNOW WHO I AM
I am God's child (John 1:12)
I am Christ's friend (John 15:15 )
I am united with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17)
I am bought with a price (1 Cor 6:19-20)
I am a saint (set apart for God). (Eph. 1:1)
I am a personal witness of Christ.  (Acts 1:8)
I am the salt & light of the earth (Matt 5:13-14)
I am a member of the body of Christ (1 Cor 12:27)
I am free forever from condemnation ( Rom. 8: 1-2)
I am a citizen of Heaven. I am significant (Phil 3 :20)
I am free from any charge against me (Rom. 8:31 -34)
I am a minister of reconciliation for God (2 Cor 5:17-21)
I have access to God through the Holy Spirit (Eph. 2:18)
I am seated with Christ in the heavenly realms (Eph. 2:6)
I cannot be separated from the love of God (Rom 8:35-39)
I am established, anointed, sealed by God  (2 Cor 1:21-22 )
I am assured all things work together for good  (Rom. 8:28 )
I have been chosen and appointed to bear fruit (John 15:16 )
I may approach God with freedom and confidence (Eph. 3: 12 )
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Phil. 4:13 )
I am the branch of the true vine, a channel of His life (John 15: 1-5)
I am God's temple (1 Cor. 3: 16).   I am complete in Christ (Col. 2: 10)
I am hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3).. I have been justified (Romans 5:1)
I am God's co-worker (1 Cor. 3:9; 2 Cor 6:1). I am God's workmanship (Eph. 2:10)
I am confident that the good works God has begun in me will be perfected. (Phil. 1: 5)
I have been redeemed and forgiven ( Col 1:14). I have been adopted as God's child (Eph 1:5)
I belong to God
Do you know
Who you are?


Keep this bell ringing...pass it on
'The LORD bless you and keep you;
The LORD make His face shine upon you
And be gracious to you;
The LORD turn His face toward you
And give you peace...
Numbers 6:24-26

To love someone is Nothing,
To be Loved by someone is Something,
BUT to be LOVED by the one that YOU LOVE is EVERYTHING..

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas crafting with the kiddos

I am always in search of something useful the girls can make that looks nice.  Well, I found a couple of keepers.  We started both of these projects 30 minutes before our neighborhood Christmas party.  The girls made them for an ornament contest.  Here's what we did....

Ms. Priss stitched this half eaten gingerbread man....

 

 
And Lil' Bit modeled the s'mores snowman out of Model Magic.  (The blog, which I link to below suggested making it out of Sculpey but we like Model Magic in this household.)

 

 

 

You can find the gingerbread felt ornament here and the s'mores snowman here. 

By the way the snowman s'more won first place.  She got a $25 gift card to Barnes and Noble!  Woohoo...more books!!!

Clippies & whirly-gigs

I promised I would post some of my clipboards and a brief tut on how to make them.

First it is not necessary but preferred to prime the metal clip on the board.  You can get by without doing this step but the paint may chip off more easily.  I have had reasonable success with using Gesso instead of the spray-on Krylon (or the like) primer.  Then you will paint the wooden part of the board with regular craft paint.  Lots of times I will let the girls do this step.  They love it and they really can't mess anything up.  It is a win-win-win situation.

In case you're one of THOSE (and I'm talkin' to you Coll) that has to know specifics...it looks like here I used Winter Blue for the board and Light Buttermilk for the clip.

 

Oh, I almost forgot...before you start take a twist-tie or florist wire or any kind of wire and twist it to hold open the clip.  I find a set of pliers helps me.  It allows you to get underneath the clip to paint the board and also doubles as a handy-dandy hanger for drying purposes...  Which is especially nice if you're making a gift for an event that you were already supposed to have left the house to attend.  Think I would do something like that?!?

Next is the fun part.  Invest in a lovely set of alphabet foam stamps.  You won't regret this purchase.  Any other classic shapes (like flourishes, etc..) you will find yourself using over and over again too.  These are Making Memories (Misunderstood font).

I used this flourish in a powder room in our first house.  It has served me well.

I like to vary my stamp sizes and colors for interest.

Don't forget to grunge the edges (just dry brush with paint, ink, or both)  See the difference in the before and after...

Before grunge

After grunge

(don't forget to grunge the clip too)

And go here if you want to tie the perfect bow.

Then you're done. (Don't forget to take off the twist-tie/wire holding the clip open.)

The possibilities are endless.  They really do make good gifts for kids and adults alike.  There is something about the wooden clipboard that kids especially LOVE though.  I think it makes them feel grown up or something.

 

 

Now, wanna cute quick project for the kiddos?  I'm thinking this would be cute done in Christmas colors of your choice and used as a garland.  You could even deliberately space them so that you didn't have $400 caught up in felt.

You are going to need several pieces of felt about 4x6" (we cut the precut 4/$1 felt into 4 pieces). 

Place 2 different colors of felt on top of each other. 

Glue the 2 pieces together at one short edge and let it dry. 

Roll it up and glue to hold (think sushi).  We used Aileen's Tacky Glue.  Let that dry. 

Cut them into about 1" rounds, let the kiddos string them (with a needle).  We did find that it was kind of tough to get through all that dried glue with a needle so I had to help them a little with that part.

Now get crafting...Christmas will be here before you know it!

Car Schooling

My mother recently advised me to get out and do my grocery shopping first thing in the morning since it is less crowded, the store shelves are usually better stocked and my girls aren't tired and cantankerous.  I usually resist because it seems to throw our days off kilter missing out on those prime learning hours.  However this morning we did just that and went shopping for some needed groceries.

So anyway on the way home Lil Bit was chattering away something about the word "too" and quizzing Ms. Priss on how it was spelled.  And it hit me!  I told one girl to use one of the three -  "two", "too", or "to" words in a sentence and the other had to spell it correctly.  I was to be the official judge.  They LOVED it.  Language Lessons for the day - check...fine'...done.  Score one for Mom!  I'm thinking you could take a lot of ideas out of the PLL (Primary Language Lessons) book and use them in this way.

Learning that is fun and efficient too.  Woohoo!!!

Altered Binder

I just realized the last blog entry was over a month ago.  I know it is a little late in the game but if you're looking for a unique and personal Christmas gift you may want to check this out.  I got this idea from Amy Mowbry but I can't find her blog anywhere so I guess she dropped off the blogging radar.  Her tut was wonderful and I recall she had even photoshopped captions on her photos.  Here's my best shot:

Start with a old, ugly or just plain boring 3-ring notebook/binder.

Begin removing the vinyl covering by cutting an X  ever so gently - especially if you want to deviate and somehow use the raw chipboard instead of covering with paper or fabric...

You'll be left with the spine still encased and 2 floppy sides.

This is one of the trickier parts.  You are going to have to tenaciously seperate the chipboard spine from the vinyl covering.  It sounds easier than it is.  Its not hard though.  You're just going to have to finesse it and put a little teeth in it at the same time. Begin by cutting away your floppy sides...

Then you're going to want to take your exacto knife and cut as close as possible to the little posts on the front and back sides.

This is where you just have to put a little muscle in it and just pull it away.  I'm always afraid I'm going to tear something up here but I never have. 

Then you will be left with bare naked chipboard.  Ahh...a blank canvas!!!

Next you are going to want to use something to bind it back together with.  You could get all fancy and actually use bookbinding tape.  But I'd suggest a cheaper...ahem...less expensive route and use double sided carpet tape purchased from the hardware store.  Eyeball the length needed.  Peel off one side of the carpet tape and attach it to half of the spine. 

Use another piece of chipboard (the other side or if you're good just eyeball the spacing) so that the cover folds properly.  This is a tough part for me.  I always seem to get mine caddy-whompus and one side wants to lay down more than the other.  This is also about where the 80/20 rule kicks in with me and you can tell in the next few pictures.  Remember there are NO mistakes in art.   That's what I keep telling myself anyway. 

It should look pretty much like this.. See that little space between the spine and cover?

Now cut a little notch out of the tape so that your tape will lay flat.

Repeat for the back cover.  Then cut a length of fabric (you could use paper although I think fabric is a little more durable), remove the 2nd side of the carpet tape and adhere the fabric to cover the spine.

Cut a little slit down towards the middle of the spine so that you can work that fabric in.  See where I'm gettin' REAL "whatever-ish"?!?  Keep at it...it will all work out just fine and the altered-binder police aren't going to come and cart you off.

There you have it.  I just folded the overlapping edge and put a little more double sided tape in there to hold it.  Just do the best you can.  It is the inside of the binder for crying out loud.  Do not worry about the raw edge/selvages either.  We're gonna address that later.

Now, trace and cut out a piece of coordinating scrapbook paper, cardstock or I guess you could even use some different kind of fabric here.

I glued it down with this Perfect Paper adhesive because I had it on hand.  Use what you like.  I've heard a lot of people like Tombo mono adhesive and also Zip Dry paper glue.  The stuff I used was just so-so... 

 

When you've glued the front and back covers down, run a bead of Aileen's Tacky Glue down the seam where the fabric and paper meet. 

You are going to cover it with ribbon and for some reason I don't have a very good photo showing that.

You may want to dress up the inside with some coordinating papers.  I cut the navy inside cover a little smaller just for interest.  And I always ink/grunge up my edges with ink.  Keeps things from looking too perfect.

These page protectors were in there and had some writing on them so I used some paper scraps and made it "artistic" (sorry about the sideways photos...not sure what's up with this blogging editor)

Use some alphabet stamps to personalize

And Voila...there you have it.

Tomorrow I will try to post how I alter clipboards.  They make great gifts too.

Call Today about Healthcare Reform

I usually try to keep my posts light but I feel like this is warranted. 

I just called my local Representative's (D) office and this is roughly what I told the young lady...  (I went under the advice to make it personal, serious and heartfelt).

I told him what city I lived in and that I am a homeschooler and we spend a lot of time studying history in our schooling.  What is going on in this country right now is unprecedented and is frightening.  I also told her that I was not an activist and have never really been involved in politics but if he votes for the health care bill, I and my husband will spend inordinate amounts of time and money to make sure that he does not go back to Washington.

I also asked her to assure me that this message would be delivered in full to him.

Just a reminder in case you feel led to call your Rep.  The vote is tomorrow.   You can find your Representative's contact information here:



http://www.house.gov/

pass it along

Cans

Cans are good.  Yes, cans are very, very good things especially for storage.  And you can even make them shabby chic and pleasing to your eye.  Plus you can impress all of your liberal friends by telling them that you are the "greenest of green".  Actually, I do not like the idea of filling up our landfills but I don't like the idea of someone making huge amounts of money off of my raw goods (trash, recyclables, etc...) and charge me exorbitant rates to pick it up it in the process. But that is another blog entry.

You can use them to store things like paint brushes, colored pencils....

 You likey the finish?  Remember the previous post about the American Light Buttermilk and gold stippling over that?  That's what it is...easy as pie!

Q-tips (for art projects)

Pliers and Rulers...hey!  those rulers aren't trash!!!  Guess I better change my tag.

But workbox tags?  Cans are not so good!

Hence my solution?  A clear notebook style case that I got several years ago on Target's Dollar Spot.  (I'm getting my money's worth out of that bulk supply of velcro dots dontcha think?)

 

And look how nicely it stores on the shelf.