Stamp of the Month

I’ve deccided to do a little feature post each month here at Life’s Visual Journal. I’ll be making and posting a stamp each month. If you want me too, I might even post a tutorial (let me know) on what I used and how the design came to be. If you have a suggestion for a stamp, please let me know!

Also, I want to make a little vote at the end, so please put in the comments which one of the small ones is your favourite!

Balloon: Cute? I thought it would be good for b’day cards…

Cupcake: Also handy for birthday cards, and scrapbooking birthday/cooking days

Button: I’m not sure why I did this… I may have just been lacking inspiration?! I like buttons though…

Bunting/Triangles: Inspired by Kim, who is currently making bunting for her wedding. The stamp is just triangles, but when you put them in a line with some drawn ‘rope’ they’re bunting! Yay! Also, you can decorate the stamps with pen once they’re on the paper. Would be cute to write a word in the triangles… (one letter per triangle).\

So what do you think?! What’s your favourite? Would you like to win one as a giveaway some time?! What should I make for this month?!

Thanks for visiting my site again! keep checking back for more updates!

Tags: balloon, button, cupcake, heart, lino, lovebird, stamp, stamping, trangle

Home Group + Perceptions

Tuesday night was home group, and I was surprised at how good it was. I’ve been feeling like not going lately, cause I it’s like no one is really interested, and there are no good discussions (hopefully that doesn’t come back to bite me…). I have no idea if anyone else felt/feels the same way. Luke and I have been going to another home group on Monday nights as well which has been really encouraging/thought provoking/interesting and I guess that hasn’t helped the whole Tuesday night situation…

Anyway, back to this last Tuesday and how it was good. I shared something I’d read in Numbers, and people actually DISCUSSED it! I don’t think this has ever happened to me at home group! My conversation starters are usually dead ends!!

We also went round in a circle and shared things that we admired/liked/generally positive things about each other. I was surprised at how awkward this made me feel. Luke suggested it, and I was poking him in the side saying, “No, no, lets not do that”. I’m not sure if it was the saying nice things about people, or the having people say nice things about me bit that was the worst.

Anyway, it was really, really interesting to see how people saw me. I’m not going to share what people said here- I’m not conceited, but I will share with you that some were a surprise, and others were things that I really value. It’s interesting that Pete mentioned a characteristic about me which I didn’t particularly consider myself having, but REALLY strongly value in other people. As in, it is one of my pet hates when people don’t have this, and I really admire people who do have this. I assume now that that’s one of the reasons that I value it so highly.

It’s just funny how things go together… lots of healing on the inside (of the heart kind), and new understanding of myself, which is always good.

Dasies in the garden...

Tags: daisy, healing, heart, homegroup, perceptions

Stars & Hearts for Christmas…

Yay! Another project complete with project sheet! As much as I love making all the beautiful creations other people post on their blog, I love to share with you my own ideas and craft projects!

This particular little beauty I started last Christmas, but only got round to finishing recently. They’re quite simple and easy to make- great for someone who’s just starting with stiching and crafts (like me!).

First you’ll need to download the pattern here (apologies for it just being a jpg and not a pdf… it’s A4 size). And then you can follow the instructions below!

Step 1: You can either choose the same material for all of them, or you can mix it up a bit, like I did. Either way you need to cut out the template for each once with the material the right way up, and once with it the wrong way up.

The reason you have to do this is because the star (or the heart) isn’t exactly even. If you just cut two out the same they wouldn’t match up.

Step 2: Cut out the shape from wadding.

Step 3: Join the three pieces together, and using either running stick (which I used) or backstich, stich around the edge, about 1/2 inch in.

Step 4: Using the pinking shears to cut around the edge. You can easily adjust the size of the stars and hearts by cutting bigger/smaller shapes. You can also replicate this idea to suit anything you want! You might want to do some stars of david for Hanukka, or some cute animals for a nursery, or letters of a kid’s name for their room…

Step 5: Join it together somehow… this part is up to you! I think I’m going to either add it to one of my christmas swags, or join them on a string of raffia… let me know what you do with yours!!

P.S: If you want to make some other cute softies… check these out!

Tags: Christmas, christmascraft, Craft, green, heart, pinking, pinkinshears, red, star