Finding Faith, Hope & Love at the Path of Positivity Challenge blog

Welcome back, crafters! My girlfriend and her hubby are celebrating their 26th wedding anniversary this month. She loves vintage, so I thought this digital image from Luna Girl would be perfect for the digital papers and elements I chose from Decosse's Dynamite Doodles, one of two sponsors this month at the Path of Positivity challenge blog. The optional theme is Faith, Hope and Love, and you certainly need all these to maintain a marriage!

My card uses the following:

 Luna Girl Vintage Romance 2 Image 1 

Decosse's Dynamite Doodles' Hearts & Swirls pp,

As Time Goes By Cranberry Plaid pp,

Glitterati Gold Glitter Paper,

Mommie Dearest Textured Paper #5,

and Pixel Scrapper A Janner Designs' Cluster Freebie

The challenge theme asks to see wedding, anniversary or engagement cards. Of course, the challenge theme is optional, but in order to have a chance to win this month's sponsored prize of a scrapbooking kit from Décosse's Dynamite Doodles, you must incorporate some faith, hope and/or love in your card. Please remember to type in the letters FT after your name when you link your card up so we know you followed the theme. You don't need to follow the optional theme if you simply want to have a chance at the Random Draw prize of three images from Pattie's Creations, another of our guest sponsors this month. 

I have FAITH in your creativity. I would LOVE to see what you make, and HOPE to see you link it up for your chance to win this month's prizes. And as always, have fun!

Finding Faith, Hope & Love on the Path of Positivity Challenge Blog

The last twelve years have been rough. One of the biggest lessons I have learned is to treasure every minute with those you love. Yesterday is history, and the future is not promised. We only have today, we only have this moment.

Taking this lesson to heart, I won't wait until September 21, my wedding anniversary, to celebrate my marriage to hubby Bill. I tell him I love him every day. And today I created a card for him, an early anniversary card, if you will. He will be getting quite a few of these throughout the year.

I found the perfect sentiment, too. It's one I used when I made my son's wedding invitations. Both he and his wife loved it. It goes perfectly with the digi image from Pattie's Creaations that I hand colored with a combination of Copics, colored pencils and glitter pens. Because my craft supplies are boxed up, I created a hybrid card. I photographed my hand-colored image and created my card using digital papers and elements:   

Hybrid card uses:
A hand-colored Pattie's Creations Seashell Border 1 with

Decosse's Dynamite Doodles Chasing Rainbows Falls PP, Bokeh Multicolor 1 PP and A Grungy Christmas Blue
DDD A Tag Grab Bag Bow 2
PixelScrapper Janet Scott's A Mother's Love Heart Border Doodle 2

My card was created for this month's challenge theme over at the Path of Positivity. June's theme is all about FAITH, HOPE & LOVE. They especially want to see wedding, anniversary and engagement cards. Of course, the challenge theme is optional, but in order to have a chance to win the prize for the Most Inspirational Creation, we want to see you create a wedding card, an engagement card or an anniversary card that reflects the concepts of faith, hope and/or love. Please remember to type in the letters FT after your name when you link your card up so we know you followed the theme. You don't need to follow the optional theme if you simply want to have a chance at the Random Draw prize of three images from Pattie's Creations, one of our guest sponsors this month. You only need to follow the theme if you want a chance to win this month's sponsored prize of a scrapbooking kit from Décosse's Dynamite Doodles, provided by the second of our guest sponsors this month. One digital image is given from Creative Bug Digital SnapShots for each person chosen as a DT Delight.

Miracles Still Happen

Today I want you to say a prayer for a friend of mine who is going through a rough time.  I meant to send her a canvas I had made previously but I thought I had better seal it with ModPodge and lo and behold the words I had written on the canvas smeared!!  Note to self: Never use gel pen to journal on canvas, no matter how sharp and  clear it makes it look! LOL
So I decided to make another canvas for her, but she doesn't know I'm sending this one out to her. Shh!  It's a secret.  I like to buy my canvases on clearance or a really good sale.  This one was part of a four pack on which one had been torn in two places.  I mod-podged the back of the tears and then covered the front of the canvas with patterned paper from Webster's Pages (US1711D)...worked perfectly, and for pennies per canvas!
I used a little bit of everything on my project today:
12x12 stretched canvas; Tim Holtz' embossing die, distress inks and grunge board (I wouldn't be surprised if the bird on the branch were his, too); Fancy Pants flower and sentiment stickers; Alphas from Rebecca Sower Designs and Colorbok; stamped manga fairy image from Gina Moceri; gold metallic paint; Mod Podge; Sakura white gel pen; gold jewels and leftover ribbon.
My techniques include distressing in the form of tearing and inking.  The quote reads: "Even today, Miracles still happen." I want my friend to never give up hope for any of life's situations. We grow stronger every time we get up from being beaten down; we learn to see more clearly when days are darkest; and we learn to spread our wings and fly when winds of change whip against us. It's funny how I took those thoughts and came up with the canvas I'm showing, but inspiration sometimes throws us curves and we just have to roll with them. I rolled with mine and came up with something which I must soon bundle up and send off into the world. I hope it cheers her up!

For Aunt Sandy and Too Many of My Friends

We Walk with Hope     by Pat Martin

In early morning we gather.

We smile.

We stretch.

We pray.

We walk.

A thousand hearts pounding in our chests.

A thousand bodies sweating in the sunshine.

Two thousand feet kicking up dust and gravel.

We walk.

As the day wears on, we hear stories.

Her Aunt Ginny, her sister Pat,

We tell our own.

My best friend Sandy, our neighbor Edith.

We pray some more.

We walk.

Cars honk in support as they pass us.

Pedestrians wave and cheer us on.

Mostly it's quiet.

Evening is drawing near.

We walk.

Two days,

40 miles,

We pray.

We hope.

We walk.

Never let health take a back seat in your life.

Never let bad news freeze you in your tracks.

Keep walking with Hope in your heart.

Challenges I Entered:

Path of Positivity Challenge Blog - HOPE

Outlawz Saturday Paper ala Mode Color Challenge - (Pink for Pat)

The Craft Place Challenge Blog - Think Pink

Crunch the Numbers

Ever have one of those days (weeks, months, years, lives) when anything that could go bad, does go bad?
when you dig yourself out of the hole, only to step into another, bigger one?  When you feel that one more failure, one more loss, one more door slammed in your face will break you?
My advice to you is to CRUNCH THE NUMBERS!  After all, your success rate for surviving loss, triumphing over failure and changing your luck is 100%  You're here reading this blog post, so you made it through tough times intact--changed, of course, possibly scarred, but a survivor, nonetheless.
And knowing this, HOPE will see you through the next time, and the next, because you're building strength every time you survive a setback and you keep HOPE in your heart.

HOPE is the theme of my project today.  More specifically, my project was inspired by a verse from Emily Dickinson's poem, "Hope Is the Thing with Feathers."

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all …

When we first married, my husband and I wanted a big family.  We teased each other about how many daughters (a Girl Scout troop's worth) or sons (a football team's worth) we'd have.  I kept my Nancy Drew book collection and started collecting Hardy Boys mysteries for our future readers.
After our son was born, I never went back to taking birth control.  We thrived as proud parents, but were disappointed as months and then years went by and I never got pregnant again.
We had given up HOPE that it would ever come about, so much so that I sold all my baby furniture, clothes and blankets. But even if your logical brain gives up, there is a tiny seed of HOPE still lingering in your heart, singing softly in your sleep.  It wasn't until ten years later when I lost my dad that I discovered I was pregnant again. I got my football player and my Girl Scout and we couldn't be happier.
HOPE is the reason we wake every morning, and it is the reason we dream at night. Here's my own bit of poetry to add to this challenge:

 The door slammed loudly. 

I climbed through a window,

    Never losing hope.

-Pat Martin, 2013

Hope happens to be this month's theme over at The Path of Positivity Challenge blog.  Got a story of HOPE, or a piece of artwork, a card or a canvas, that embodies the idea of HOPE?  Please share it, if not for the challenge, then for inspiration for others.

Need more inspiring stories of HOPE yourself?  Try reading the stories at GIVESMEHOPE.COM  

They always make me feel good!

Whatever you do, remember to hold onto HOPE and keep crafting!!