Prayer Board

 I can't believe it's been almost a month since I've posted...things have been pretty busy at our house.

We are trying to clean out and reorganize the whole place and believe me, it is daunting! I'll write more about our progress at another time.

Today, I wanted to share our prayer board with you.

A number of years ago, I decided that I didn't like having all of the photos we received from friends and family at Christmas, sit in a basket until the next year and then be thrown away.

I bought a plain bulletin board, arranged all of the photos on the board and then hung it up in the kitchen. Not satisfied with it just hanging there, I made a commitment to pray for the friends and family in the photos as often as I stopped to look at the pictures. This has now become a ritual for me and I feel closer to these dear ones because of praying.  I look forward to pinning up the new pictures every new year and comparing them with the ones from the year before. Because more and more people are sending along photos, I had to get a larger bulletin board last year! I also can't always use all of the pictures if they are embedded in a letter. I try to chose the ones that include all of the prople from that family.

This is my board with the new Christmas 2013 photos...

Some of you might see yourself or someone you know...



Do you keep all of the photos that you receive at Christmas, and if so, what do you do with them?

ON A SIDE NOTE: Something is wrong with my Blogger. It took me several hours to write this post and upload the photos. I'm trying to figure out how to contact Blogger about this problem and get some help. I had trouble once before and switched from Internet Explorer to Google Chrome and for a while it was great but now it won't load anything.
Gosh, I wish I understood this better!

XOXO
Joyce



Swap Treats For Francie-A Swap For All Seasons

Continuing our journey through the year with A Swap For All Seasons, the swap group I've been in since last September, March's theme was Spring and the destash color was yellow. Spring offered us a variety of possibilities including St. Patrick's Day, Easter and of course, the season itself. I decided to do a little something including all three.

My card for Francie featured a Spring theme...

I love working with the seed packets from Julie at Old Design Shop..

Her blog is here and her Etsy shop is here .

She has hundreds of high quality images in the shop but she also offers free images on her blog. I have used many of her images, both free and purchased.

Here is a link just to the seed packet images.

The little girl is an image I've had for some time and she just speaks Spring to me with her arms filled with flowers. The butterfly is a Martha Stewart punch.

I usually coordinate my card and tag but I decided to go in a different direction this time.

I saw this cute little lass in my file and wanted to use her for Francie's tag.

The pocket is a vintage library card pocket that I covered in printed papers and trimmed out with a die cut doily and a shamrock made with a heart punch. Lucky.

For some Springy yellow stash I sent...

This swap has been fun every month. Would you like to join in? If you have an active blog and like to do paper crafting, you would have a lot of fun. Each month we create one card, a tag and send along some destash from our own collections. No stress...just fun.You can read the details here on the Swap For All Seasons blog.

The next sign-up is April 1st for the May swap.

The current swap theme is Mother's Day and the color is peach. I like a good challenge...My own Mother has been gone for years and peach is a color I never use in my crafting.. Well, that's what makes this fun! I am looking forward to getting to know May, the swapper I will be sending to.

xoxo

Joyce

A Swap For All Seasons-March.... My gifts from Jan

Well, I think all of us in the US (at least the Midwest and East Coast) are about fed up with Winter this year. I know we have had over 55-inches here in Southwest Pennsylvania.  But consider my new friend, Jan Smith, of Jan's Arty Junk. She lives in the UK where they have been having record rainfalls and flooding. Please take time to visit Jan's blog (click on her blog name above) She is a talented artist and Tim Holtz style wizard. Fab.u.lous!

Anyway, I couldn't wait to receive her package and let me just say that my pictures don't nearly show the detail of her very fine work!

Look at the spool...

Isn't that clever?
Then there is the oodles and oodles of sunny yellow craft gems...
beads, buttons, ribbon, papers, stamps, parasol...bits and bobs...

I am swooning over the Easter egg napkin. I want to try my hand at some napkin decoupage using that napkin,  the details are lovely.
Jan, thank you very much for your creative gifts and for sharing them with me.
I have loved being your recipient and I hope we are partnered again soon!
As soon as I hear from Francie that she has received my package, I'll show you what I sent to her.

xoxo
Joyce