Scrapbooking goodness!

Like I said yesterday, I've been busy...busy scrapbooking! :D No, seriously, we've been insanely busy, but I have managed to squeak out more than a few pages in the last few weeks! Enjoy!

First up? A gorgeous collab by Designs by Kat and Faith True Originals, Glad Tidings. I combined it with a template by Fiddle Dee Dee Designs, Fuss Free: You Spin Me (tell me you aren't singing the song right now!)

Next up is another Faith True Originals/Fiddle Dee Dee combo, this time using Faiths newest kit, Winter Folly and Snow Wordart and Cheryl's template pack, Fuss Free: Like, Totally!

Nowe we're jumped to this adorable kit by Elise's Pieces, The Merriest Collection (linked to just the papers...but all parts of the kit are there!). Tell me those cheeks don't make you giggle! My sweet GK!

And here's GK all grown up and with no front teeth! This stunningly beautiful MUST HAVE Christmas kit is Holly Jolly by Jennifer Labre Designs. I can not sing the praises of this kit enough! WOW!
And this kit is just full of Christmas Cookie sweetness! Another winner by Jennifer Labre Designs, Sugar and Spice is perfect for all of your holiday (and everyday) baking! These elements are so yummy!
Last but definitely NOT least, a combination of Jennifer Labre Designs' gorgeous Christmas kit from last year, Joyful (still availalbe at OScraps!) and a stunning template by Fiddle Dee Dee Designs for Cheryl's feature at the Daily Digi:
I hope that you feel inspired to create when you see some of my layouts! Digital scrapbooking has been such a joy in my life over the last 2 years! I'm so thankful I discovered it and all it's flexibility and FUN! I've got a few more layouts, but those will have to wait for another day! Merry Christmas to all my blog reading friends...all 2 or 3 of you! :D

A month has passed...

How does time continue to fly on by? I've wanted to post a blog update several times in the last couple of weeks and just never had the time, or, upon sitting down with a few minutes in the evening, promptly fell asleep! Sigh. That's life, I suppose! But I'm here now, so enough with the time flies diatribe! I've been scrapping (I guess I've got time to scrap...just not to

blog! ;) and I've got lots to share with you all!

I've also been preparing for Christmas! As the pastoral couple in our International Church, we've been keeping busy! We had a lovely Christmas dinner, a Christmas movie night, special services and Sunday school lessons, and this weekend we've got 2 meetings: one on Friday afternoon and the Christmas Eve Carols and Candle lighting service. We've attended the Ramallah city Christmas tree lighting (and saw the prime minister of

Palestine, Salam Fayad, which was cool!), and have been baking, watching holiday movies, and lighting our own Advent wreath at home with our kids. I love this holiday so very much! I snapped this cool picture of the Advent candles at Mosaic International Church last week on my iPod:

Scrapbooking post coming TOMORROW! I promise! :D

Celebrating the Advent Season

The Advent Season has come. How does your family celebrate the coming of Jesus? Do you have special traditions you return to year after year at this time? My family enjoys the daily Advent readings and the lighting of the Advent candles. This year we hope to add a Jesse Tree to our family's traditions.

Of course, we enjoy the other aspects of the Christmas season: the gifts, the parties, the caroling, Santa Claus, etc. But we try to keep our focus on Jesus throughout the month.

I hope and pray that you and yours enjoy a blessed Christmas season full of the wonder of the first Christmas that happened so very long ago!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope you all enjoyed a lovely Thanksgiving Day with family and friends! We enjoyed an amazing meal and great company! I am blessed and have so much for which to be thankful.

Got a chance to scrapbook earlier in the week and finished this layout, inspired by my new favorite iPod game, Words with Friends! The stuff I used all came from Scrap Orchard and the links are following the picture:

New Year's Papers

Boardgames

Scramble Alpha

All by Faith True Originals

Fuss Free: Set 8 by Fiddle Dee Dee Designs

Time for the Advent season to begin! I love this time of year!

Gratitude

Jennifer Labre has a gorgeous new kit out today at OScraps. You can see the kit here! Gratitude has so many yummy elements and gorgeous colors. Jenn's talent in designing is amazing! Her elements make me want to reach out and touch them! I used it to scrap some pictures that make me smile!

It's coming on Thanksgiving! We're getting excited about our Thanksgiving Day celebrating with friends here. But it's made me homesick, too. Sigh. It's not easy being away from those we love. It helps to have good friends and friends who feel like family. Still miss my family and Na-na's pecan pie!

Tell a Tale

Cheryl from Fiddle Dee Dee Designs has got this amazing set of templates out this week at Scrap Orchard! Fuss Free: Tell a Tale lets your jouranling shine. I chose to write about Thomas' stay in the NICU way back in 1999. I've never written the story down, but it wasn't hard to remember the emotions that overwhelmed us at that time. It was good to write it down. The pictures we have on the computer are low quality scans (pre-digital!), so the journaling really tells the story. If you like to feature your journaling, you MUST have these templates! You can grab them HERE!

I coupled this template with an adorable new kit by Elise's Pieces, Just Friends. She's guesting at The Digichick this month!

It was good for me to think about how blessed we are, to thank God that Thomas' stay in the NICU was short and that he is a healthy, growing boy these days. It was good to think about how very much I love him. And maybe that's my thankful post for the day! I'm thankful for Thomas, for his endless energy, for his sweet smile, for his loving affection. I'm thankful that he is healthy and well-adjusted and that he loves people, just like his Mama. <3 So, here's that layout:

Jennifer Labre's got something gorgeous out this week, too! This mini-kit is Fall Splendor, and it's full of digital yumminess! I used another Fiddle Dee Dee template, Fuss Free: Artisana 4. And I got to remember fondly the times we spent with Papa Joe. He's been gone for 2 1/2 years, and I still miss him so very much. Oh, how he loved his little Farmer! <3

Today I am thankful for...

Good friends. Kind and generous friends. Those people who bless our lives by just being who God created them to be! I hope you all have people like that in your lives. I am blessed to have many! This week we got to visit with some of them! Lebib and Carolyn and their kids moved from Jerusalem this past summer to Amman. We all miss them desperately, and it was so great to be with them again for a few days!

But my "bless me by just being you" friend list is long! to name a few...Mara, Regina, Mom, Judy, Chris, Nisreen, Im Omar, Babs, Joanie, Stacy, Dawn, Ann, Sharie...the list goes on and on. I can't possibly mention you all! I am blessed with dear, dear friends and I am so thankful for each and every one of them today!

Back from Jordan with layouts to share!

No, I didn't create any layouts while we were on our mini-vacation in

Jordan, visiting friends, but I did have a few ready to share before we left! I just ran out of time! I know you're all sitting on the edge of your seats, so
here is one I created using Faith True Originals I'd Fall For You Again kit and word art! Love the earthy tones in this kit! The template was for a b
log train freebie by Fiddle Dee Dee Designs. Such a cute template!

The next one features a kit by Elise's Pieces, Time Well Spent, as well as a Brushed Alpha by Faith True Originals. It also features what I consider a pretty amazing picture I took of our cat nose to nose with a pigeon! Loved this picture and so glad I had my camera handy!

And for good measure, a few shots from our trip to Amman, Jordan! These were all taken at the ruins in Jerash...pretty cool! See you all again soon!!!

And the winner is...

Amy (turtle15)!!!!! Congrats! You won the $7 coupon to Jennifer Labre Designs' OScraps store! Thanks to all who played along! Hope you had a great DSD weekend!

We're in Jordan visiting friends! It's been awesome! Today we saw the ruins at Jerash for the first time! It's always better with good friends, too!

Happy scrapping! :D

Thankful...today

Today I am thankful for my Dad. I grew up in a secure home with a father who adored me and told me so often. Today a friend called because her father had hit her. She needed somewhere to go and she came to us. There's a lot going on in this situation, including cultural factors which do not always make sense to me. But I stepped back and thought about my father. And I thank God for him today. We don't always see eye to eye, but I know he loves me. And I am thankful for the life he provided for me.

Love you, Daddy!

Want to win a $7 coupon for digital goodness?

The wOrd is Out! Jennifer Labre Designs has joined the awesome team at OScraps! And I've got a $7 coupon to give away!

Just visit Jenn's new OScraps store by clicking the image below and come back and leave a comment, telling me your favorite Jennifer Labre Design kit and why! I'll choose a winner before I go to sleep tonight (7 hours ahead of EST)! Have FUN!!!! And don't miss the 40% off sale!

(Having trouble with the link, so just click here to go to Jenn's store:

http://www.oscraps.com/shop/home.php?cat=420&treem=1)

Thanksgiving Today

Today I am thankful for scrapbooking! I love it! It's my stress relief and my fun time! And now that I've discovered digital scrapbooking, it's even MORE fun! I love capturing my family's ordinary and extraordinary happenings! I love looking at my pages after they've been created and printed! I love knowing that my hobby is a gift to my family and friends for years to come! Scrapbooking makes me happy, plain and simple! And I like to think my scrapbooking makes other people happy, too! I know my kids LOVE seeing themselves featured in my layouts! Yep, today I am thankful for scrapbooking! And here's a shout out to all my scrapbooking friends!

And now I'll share some of my favorite layouts just for funzies!

Thankful

A few years back I blogged daily about something I was thankful for throughout the month of November. I'm not sure I've got a daily post in me, time-wise, but I think I'll give it a go. At least to help me focus on the amazing things I have been blessed with in this life!

Today, I thank God for this beautiful land where I live and the friends

we have here. I love the Palestinian people deeply. I thank God for bringing me here. My life is richer and fuller because I have spent the last 7 1/2 years living among the Palestinians. So many wonderful friends that I can't possibly share pictures of everyone. I'll post a picture or two for smiles. But today I am thankful for Palestine.

Nature Girl and MORE!

Gearing up for Digital Scrapbooking Day!!!! That is happening the first weekend in November! Lots of fun stuff going on all over digi-land, with sales, give-aways, blog trains, challenges and MORE! Don't miss it!

Jennifer Labre Designs is closing her Scrap Matters' shop THIS WEEKEND! It's not to late to take advantage of her 50% of sale! She is moving to a new store! Stay tuned for that exciting news! :D Here are two layouts using her amazing kits! These kits will be moving to her new space, so if you haven't gotten them yet, they won't disappear!

The first is Ice Cream Dreams, which was part of the Mix-A-Kit at Scrap Matters:

The next one is her FUN birthday kit, Over the Hill! Such cute elements in this kit!

Love this kit! It's Nature Girl, the latest by Faith True, and it's full of digital yumminess! Click the picture and the link will take you to this kit at Scrap Orchard.

MOVING SALE! 50% of select Jennifer Labre Design items!

Jenn is moving her shop and saying goodbye to Scrap Matters with a HUGE 50% off
moving sale! Any kit or item she isn't going to take with her to the new store is now marked 50% off! Don't miss your chance to grab favorite kits like:

Click on the image below to head directly to Jenn's Scrap Matters shop!

Don't miss out!

And stay tuned when Jenn announces where she's going! It's an exciting new beginning!

My first Faith True Originals Creation!

I get so excited to try something new! To join a new team is just FUN! This is my first layout using Faith's stuff and I put 2 kits together and came up with this! Queen Bee and Have Heart. I also used a Fiddle Dee Dee Designs template, Fuss Free: Artisan 4! These are all available from Scrap Orchard! The picture is of me and my Daddy and Mommy on my grandparents farm sometime around 1977! Love the results of this combination!

I look forward to sharing more of my Faith True Original creations! I'm so in love with her designs! :D

Another Creative Team???

I'm so excited! I just got invited to join Faith True Originals Creative Team! She sells at Scrap Orchard and you just have to see her stuff to see how amazing her creations are! I can't wait to play! Stay tuned for some digital yumminess from Faith True Originals! :D

Sea Glass and Scrapbooking!

Today the family headed out on a sea glass hunting adventure for Green Creations: West Bank. We headed north to Dor Beach National Park. SUCCESS! We came home with enough good pieces to get us really started in jewelry development before Christmas gets here! And we had fun to boot!

I also had some time this week to play with a few new kits from Scrap Matters! This first one is Shabby Black and White by Elise's Pieces! It's a stunning and FUN kit. I just had to pull out my sister's wedding pictures to use with this kit! I couldn't resist the fingers and toes! :D
This next new kit is Paisley Princess by Jennifer Labre Designs, and it's chock full of cuteness! I'm a freak for anything purple, so I fell in love instantly! But the kit is seriously adorable! And I think my little Maggie is, too!
It's a scraphappy world! My heart is full! I'm focusing my mind on reading 1 John through as part of a Bible study. And I'm listening to Christmas music! Yep, I'm crazy...but lovin' life! :D See you again soon, friends!

My baby turned 6!!!

It was Georgia Kate's birthday on Sunday! I can hardly believe how the years fly by! She turned 6, and we got to celebrate as a family with Aunt Danni (my sister, Regina) and Uncle John Facetime-ing into the party! I love modern technology! Thought I'd share a few pictures from the day!

My baby is growing up! Habibti, Georgia!

This Barn Tells a Story

I wanted to use this gorgeous kit, Harvest, by Jennifer Labre Designs. I pulled out some Thanksgiving pictures, but it just wasn't grabbing me. I started searching through my unscrapped photos and I found this picture of Papa Joe and Na-na's barn. I think it was taken in the mid-80s or so. And the colors of fall made it perfect for this kit. But what do I do with a picture of the barn? Journal from the heart, of course!

The barn might not survive another season. All have acknowledged that the barn will need to come down sooner rather than later. And it makes me sad. This barn tells a story. It's been there for so very long and has seen so much. It stands as a symbol of the Stoschack farm. When it finally comes down, my heart will feel sad.

The kit is available at ScrapMatters. Trust me...if you need a fall/harvest kit, you want this one! It's STUNNING! I just had to scrap with it!

Making jewelry and PLARN!

As part of a poverty alleviation project I've started in the West Bank, I've been learning some new crafty ways! I started crocheting with Plarn, which is plastic yarn made from plastic shopping bags! It's been a fun ride! I also just learned to wrap sea glass and make jewelry! Can you say FUN?

Green Creations: West Bank has hired 2 ladies for a 3 month trial period. We're hoping to have product to sell in time for Christmas gift-giving! These ladies are working hard right along with me! I'll share a few samples of things we've created!

If you've got any wonderful ideas about creative ways to upcycle trash, please feel free to share! I'd love to hear from you!