Yes, I'm still leaping for joy!

Welcome back to my blog (for me, too)!! Well, I've learned that blogs are funny things....I love to read them and I'm really glad I started mine, but then it greets me everyday with a blank page.....not unlike the day the Lord had made today! And then the obligations come in and then the choices are wide and open and things get juggled and the list grows and morphs and here we are...end of September!! These certainly have continued to be busy months! We have thankfully "recovered" from our Algonquin wilderness trip! (Let's just say we weren't the ONLY Leaches in the water!!) I promised a pic or two so here you go! You'll see one of the sites we stayed in and what early morning looks like on the water. See our ultra light tents??? You pack really really light when you carry everything everywhere everyday!! All the water you see....we paddled through and back!!
We got back from Canada and spent a week downloading our stuff, our knotted muscles, our brains, our pictures and our days!!












Now fast forward to September and along with getting back to school, this last month I've been planning for our church's yearly missions emphasis for the month of September...the last four Sundays! It's been a lot of planning and juggling speakers and fun and exciting mission focused stuff....but it is time consuming....today was the last day and it was just AWESOME!! We had speakers this month that minister in China, all of Latin America, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Japan, Kenya, South Africa, the middle East, Egypt, Turkey, Kazakhstan, even in Rochester, NY and every country in between! When we realize that God has given us the charge of spreading his word of love, peace and redemption for eternal life to the entire world, I get fired up!! :) (My husband will tell me this is the first sign of trouble! :0

But I loved the summer, finding time to stamp, usually late night when I'm just not tired enough for bed...I've recently joined the Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) forum on Splitcoaststampers.com and the WISH RAK as well....so I get to send lots of cards and grant image wishes to people I don't even know!! It's such a blessing to use my stamps to make others happy! If you are a stamper and have never been to SCS it can be overwhelming at first--it was to me....so I decided to take it one step at a time....and what a wonderful group of people! I have already received three welcome to SCS RAKs, one welcome to Wish RAK from my mentor, Dorothy and some Bella images, too. Being part of this reminds me that I have a big family of people I DO know who don't get enough cards from me, so I am going to start RAKing them and see what happens!! (Good things always do!)

Since school has started, though, even finding time to sit in one spot and breathe is hard to do! So stamping has taken to only the weekends....at least til soccer season quiets down! I did manage to stamp a few cards for a swap I am in on the Cornish Heritage Farms forum; I'll try to post a pic of one as soon as the recipients receive them! I did make a card for a sympathy card swap, but neglected to take a picture! Here are some cards I stamped this summer:



This was a b'day card for my friend Sandy....the stamps are Gina K's sea friends and the sentiment is Hero Arts. I used all in colors '08 from Stampin up and some Cuttlebugged paper my friend Kathy G let me emboss with her machine (I am SO getting one for Christmas!!)

My favorite part of the card was the little guy on the envelope....I drew in the cupcake (tee hee!)






This one I made for a "Cards for the troops" contest. I love this God bless America 9/11 commemorative stamp from Stampin up. The backgrounder is Cornish Heritage Farms (retired) and the 'hero' word is my own handwriting! SU Brilliant blue and Real Red are the inks and the sentiment is also Hero Arts.

Please please pray for our troops in all the world...we just had another young man from our church go out and we want the hand of God over all their lives!! We cannot thank them enough for their daily sacrifices!!

Well, I should go do my homework now! I am so hoping to check in more often and share my cards and musings! thanks so much for spending some time here! And thank God for another new and shiny day tomorrow to fill with new and exciting stuff! Blessings to you and your family!!

PS Forgive the space issues on the blog....I'm still a newbie with layout and what I see on preview is not what I set....ah well, at least it shows up :) Thanks to God for the blessings! :)

My Pad's been busy!!

Wow, this blogging stuff takes real commitment! I've been wanting to sit down for days and post, but time slips away so quickly every day. You know God tells us that our "time is sufficient" to get everything done. He is certainly (and always) right; it's just that I always try to garner more time in a day!! Luckily God knows best! He knows that if I had 40 hours in a day, I'd abuse that gift with too much to do in that extended time. Sigh. I am so thankful to my source of strength and joy, that He would care about even the minutes in my hours. AND He lets me find a minute or two to make a card! Here's some of my latest creations!

This is a emboss resist card that I made with stamps from CHF (Stained Glass BGer and Large Daisy Detail stamps). I used Stampin' Up inks barely banana, only orange, ruby red, tempting turquoise, lovely lilac and ballet blue as well as clear and black detail embossing powder on Versamark ink. Cardstock is SU whisper white and basic black, Current Inc. designer paper. The button is from my button box and the embroidery floss from my cross-stitching days (probably DMC). A great tutorial by Keri Sereika is on CHF forum. Try it out! It's easy!

This is another card, unfortunately made from necessity, as we had an old friend pass from this earth unexpectedly this week. I made this card for the family. This is one of my favorite SU stamp sets, Close as a Memory. I love the sentiments. I also used versamark on the background and flowers, and Pearl Ex on the flowers. Ink colors for the sentiment were in Elegant Eggplant. I'm pretty sure the cardstock was plum and lilac colors from SU, but they were in a pile of scraps, so you'll have to take my word for it :)

If you can stand one more creation in the bunch, here is my first attempt at coloring one of the Thomas Kinkade images from CHF. I only have one stamp and this one is called "Wish Cottage". I actually stamped and colored it a week ago, but I found it takes me that long to like it well enough to share it with others who dare to venture onto my post! It's inked in Ranger's Distress ink, Walnut stain (also from CHF) and colored with Crayola colored pencils.

Well that's the time I have for today...and it's really tomorrow! Eeek! My daughter leaves for a week at a Christian Youth Camp tomorrow (um...today! :) and I've got to get rested up for the trip! (Read: the goodbye!) Have a blessed Sunday everyone!

Wow...this is exciting!!!

Oh my! Only my second post and I have news!! My card entry into the monthly challenge at Cornish Heritage Farms site was chosen as one of the winners for July!! This IS so exciting as I have entered almost every month since April and this month, I'm in the winner's circle!! I will post the card here, although I apologize for the quality of the picture...it was taken in haste when our camera died and I had to use a borrowed one from school. Then because I couldn't download it onto my computer (no cord) I had to run to Walmart, copy it to disk from the memory card and then come home post it to CHF....Do you think that's why it won? God blessed all my efforts and hard work with the honor, I'm guessing! :) Anyway, here it is!




For the contest, you had to use all of the stamps included in the 'package' (and only those stamps) as well as sponges to make a background. The actual challenge was to create a scene for the card. I used all Stampin' Up ink and markers, and Crayola Watercolor pencils. Lots of great entries were posted, with a great amount of creative talent displayed! And I thank God for the blessings of today! I am recovering from ankle sprains from a wilderness camping trip we just returned from on Monday this week...and I can today walk (and blog!) painfree! I will post some pictures from the trip sometime soon! Thanks for checking out my blog!

Wow...this is NEW!

I cannot believe I am creating a blog! Me! Well this is only the beginning of something new and different! I love to stamp and make cards and I read stamper's blogs all the time. I have been so encouraged by some of the stamper's blogs I read out there that I think to myself...I can do this! So here it is. Interesting name for a blog, yes? Well, a little background....you see I have loved frogs since I 'met' Kermit the frog on Sesame Street as a little kid. He was funny and he loved to play with language...and that about sums up me! And he was green! So I became quickly associated with all things, well, FROG. And of course, there's the faith part of the equation! Faith for me is a life line and my love of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is above all else! So many believe that faith is a leap, and I guess it is...but once you leap, it all comes together and you can believe anything is possible! So, here we are....Frog of Faith is born! Feel free to stop in and check it out...I have a lot to learn here and I don't mind a guest or two! And I will be posting my card making extravaganzas....just for fun!