I'm Still Alive and Waddling....

Hello everyone out there in blogland who might still be listening for a random quack-out from me from time to time! I know it's been months hasn't it? And I apologize for not updating sooner then this but well, life gets in the way of the fun sometimes and one just needs to step back from it all.... And that's what I've had to do for awhile. Don't worry, everything is going well for us. No major issues or concerns to complain about. God is good. :)

I'm still warping the minds of young children and both of our families are doing pretty wonderful. Andrew was without a job for several months but he's got one now and loving it! My dear dad is still making strides in his cancer recovery and is actually scheduled to have his next major surgery next week, where they plan to reverse his ilesotomy. So please keep him and the doctors in your prayers. They tried to do so in May but had done the wrong tests and didn't realize it until taking him into for surgery. Bit of a disappoint to wake up to it not being done but always rather be safe, you know!

Stamping and photos are still my favorite hobbies but I sort of taken a break and am letting my creative jucies ebb and flow for a bit to get myself recharged. Also in May our computer had a bit of a burnout. It didn't crash per say but after a surge it blow the powercell, the motherboard and heavens knows what else. The harddrive is currenting in the loving hands of a very good friend who hasn't had time to completely devote (can only complain so much about FREE help and assistance, ya know!) to getting my 15,000+ photos off of it as well as several programs that I used regularly that I can't get into any other way. As you can imagine, I was very close a heart attack for about 2-3 weeks as I was kept wondering whether I'd ever see our photos and certain creations again. PATIENCE!!!! We had just purchased the backup to take care of such issues from ever happening but the power surge beat us to it. (Yes it was on a surge protector...BTW. Guess they only protect to a degree.) Oddly enough, the friend who always let me use their laptop when we had our on-going internet issues, dropped and busted theirs as well.  :(

And b/c of that major bump in the road, I have still been unable to access my main email account. When you put your passwords into the program and then don't access them for four years.... this would be the result! I've tried everything I can think of! Not to mention that many of my favorite website passwords were keyed in automatically as well. It's taken a LOOOONNGGG while to get some of those figured out but I'm getting there! Very frustrating at times but it's all good. :) Currently, we have a shiny new laptop....

Anyways.... I digress! I just wanted to let you all know I've doing fine. There have been a few of you who have gone above and beyond to check on me and I'm touched by that! Thanks for being such wonderful cyber friends. Life is good and I hope to be back creating and sharing just like old times in the near future!
Much love and hugs,
Angie :)

April's Fools Day Fun

Today is April Fool's Day, and the sticks in the bread basket have been up to a little mischief!  More about that in a minute.  First, here are the basics on today's release and how you can win a gift certificate to purchase some of these fantastic new sets!

For today's New Release at ODBD,  we are not doing a "formal Blog Hop", but the team has all posted a card using the new sets and are linking each other in their posts.  There are no secret words or letters to collect. However, just like in a blog hop, there will be prizes for viewing every DT's blog, leaving comments on all those you can, and returning to the ODBD Blog to tell us you have done so.  Two winners will be randomly chosen from those who do this, and they will each receive a $15.00 Gift Certificate toward stamps from the ODBD Store. (Note: the ODBD Blog can now take anonymous comments so everyone should be able to do this and if anyone cannot make a comment on any designer's blog, just state that in the comment at the end on the ODBD Blog) You have until 8PM Eastern on April 2 to complete these requirements.

Card Supplies:

Stamps: ODBD Happy Father's Day, Dad

Paper: DCWV At Home, GKD

Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa, Ranger Distress Ink Frayed Burlap

Embellishments: GKD Buttons

So with today being April Fool's Day, the Sticks in the Bread Basket decided it would be fun to play a little game with the new release sets. Each cased another DT member and then sent their card to that person to post on their blog today. The fun is going to be to see how well Kelley really knows her team, because she has to guess who created which card. We'll ask her to make a list of each DT member and write next to their name who she thinks made the card they posted.  It's all just in fun, but if you'd like to play along, feel free!  You can email your guesses to Grace at: gnywening@yahoo.com up until 8PM Eastern on April 2.  ONLY ONE email please!  The one or ones (in the case of a tie) who correctly guessed the most will be given recognition on the ODBD Blog.

Now to continue the fun, here are the next three designers after me, take you back to the beginning again but in case you missed anyone here they are:
Sandee
Connie
Chris
And if you get lost or hit a broken link you can always pop back over to the ODBD blog for the entire list. :)

Thanks for playing along with us! Have fun in your blog hopping! :)

Our Daily Bread Designs Second Anniversary Blog Hop

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Wooo Hoo! Today's the big day! It's the Second Anniversary of Our Daily Bread designs! ODBd has been celebrating for the last 5 days with daily challenges, prizes, blog candy and beautiful creations! If you came here from Lorelie's Blog, you are in the right place! If not you might want to start at the ODBD Blog and hop in the order given there so you can collect the secret letters in order!

Today, Kelley is releasing FOUR new and truly wonderful Special Edition sets! They are near and dear to our hearts, because each of us on the Design Team submitted one of our favorite Scripture verses that we would like to put on a card, and those Scripture Verses are two of the sets being released today. If that wasn’t exciting enough… she also created two sets of gorgeous borders that fit the Scriptures! If you want that special touch to present your sentiments in, be sure to check out these beautiful borders!

Today’s Blog Hop is extra special because it allows each of the Design Team members to make the first card with their own favorite Scripture! We hope you will truly enjoy the hop… and of course it wouldn’t be a Blog Hop without prizes! And today, Kelley is going to give 3 prizes of your choice from one of these new Anniversary sets!

The verse I submitted this year is Psalm 47:2 "How Awesome is the Lord Most High, The Great King over all the earth!" Isn't that just a beautiful praise and a fabulous reminder of how wonderful our Creator is!

About my Card: I used a combination of several gorgeous SEI papers (First Kiss, Secret Rendevous, Sweet Perfum, & Juliette Velvet) that you can find in the ODBd Store, along with an assortment of Prima flowers and leaves. The Nestabilities diecuts are from the Labels Two set. All of the rhinestone swirls are also from Prima. Several of the layers are popped up and edges are sponged with Walnut Stain and I used several assorted corners punches. The card is 5.5 square. Hope you enjoy seeing my creation!

Here is what you have to do to qualify for the prizes:

* Hop from first to last, and collect the secret LETTER each designer will have. * Leave a comment for the designer on their blog.
* Return to the ODBD blog, leaving a comment to tell us that you visited all the blogs. 
* Email Grace at:gnywening@yahoo.com, sending her the secret message the letters spell.

*You have until 8:00 PM EST on Mar 18th to complete the hop and email me the message. The winners will be announced on the ODBD Blog on Mar. 19th!

From here you need to go visit Sandee!
My secret letter is: S!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! 

Flocked Glory

Hello friends! Today I'm sharing a simple creation I made using the new ODBd set, The Lord has Risen. The violets were stamped in a sepia color ink and I colored them using several Copic markers. It's hard to gather from the picture but I misted the flowers with Gold Glimmer Mist (my fav!) and then dotted the centers with a touch of stickles glitter. The sentiment tag and diecut behind it, were cut from the Labels Three Nestabilities set. I sponged a bit of chocolate ink around the edges of everything except the card base. And check out that card base - its a 5x5 piece of some rather glorious flocked flower pattern, I happened upon a few months ago. The satin ribbon and the tiny cross charm help to round out this sweet and simple card! Hope you enjoy this card and have a wonderful day!

Our Daily Bread Designs March Release Blog Hop!

Hello Everyone!

 Welcome to the Our Daily Bread Designs March Release Blog Hop!

If you arrived here from Chelsea's blog, you are in the right place!  If not, you might want to start at the Our Daily Bread designs Blog to be sure you hop in the correct order, because we are having a Special Message Hop, and you will be collecting our Secret Words as you hop along, so you will want them in the order given!   

You have until Tues at 8:00PM EST to complete the requirements to be eligible to win.

There will be TWO BLESSED WINNERS... who will each receive a $15.00 Gift Certificate to the Our Daily Bread designs Store to go toward the stamps of your choice! Winners will be randomly chosen from all the qualified entries, and announced on Wed. Mar.3 on the ODBD Blog!

Here is what you need to do to be eligible to win:

• 1. Hop from blog to blog in the order given below, writing down the secret words you will find clearly written  in their posts, and leaving a comment on each blog.

• 2. Return to the ODBD Blog and leave a comment that you completed the hop and left comments for each designer.

• 3. Email me (Grace) at:   gnywening@yahoo.com

          In the email, give me the secret words you found in order .... they will spell out a special message from the Our Daily Bread designs Design Team to you!  

If for any reason a link is broken, simply return to the Our Daily Bread designs Blog  to see who is next on the list, leaving a space for the missing words.  Most often if you can't get on a blog or leave a comment now.... if you wait a little while and try again you usually can.

Now on to my projects. I created a simple one-layer card using each of the three new stamp sets:

Each card is on one-layer of white cardstock with the images watercolored with reinkers and an aqua pen. The top and bottom cards are the normal A2 size while the middle one is 4x4 square. They each have a different type of sparkle to them as well. The popped up and colored violets are misted with Gold Glimmer Mist, the daffodil and words are highlighted with a Stardust Gelly pen, and the bells are touched up with diamond stickles. Hope you enjoy these!


Before you go, I want to tell you about the exciting events we have planned for you this month!  March 17 is the Second Anniversary of  Our Daily Bread designs, and we are celebrating!!! 

Be sure to check the ODBD Blog on Sunday, Mar. 7!  We will be announcing fun challenges that will run Mar. 13 - 16 so you can get a jump on them.... Then beginning on Sat. Mar. 13, we will be announcing a daily challenge and there will be wonderful prizes EVERY DAY!  On Mar. 17 we will have another Blog Hop, revealing the Special Edition Anniversary Release!  I hope we'll see you then!!!

I hope you enjoyed my project, and now I'll send you on to Lorelie's blog for more beautiful flowers and spring-time inspiration!
Before you go, my secret word is: appreciate.

Thank so much for stopping by today! Have a wonderful week! 

Tweets to You!

Hi there! Hope ya'll had a lovely Valentine's Day! I've got two more cards to share with you in the same line as my last post - simple, one-layer and pretty. :) Still working with the wonderful bird sets from ODBd. It's been a super busy month and I haven't had much time to touch anything else! But I do love these sweet birdies!

I used the cardinal from Sing for Joy here along with the little pine branch stamp for around the edges. I watercolored with SU reinkers and I also highlighted a lot with SU markers. After I colored it, I sponged the edges with Chocolate Chip ink and misted the card with gold Glimmer Mist. I stamped and popped up three more pine branches and added the little metal charm that says peace. Think this ones going in the file for some of this upcoming Christmas cards. :)

This one I think came out so sweet! Even hubby really liked it! :) The chickadee and verse are both from the You Will Find Refuge set. Again I watercolored the bird using SU reinkers. The berries are stickled up a bit for some extra glitz. I love how the wired ribbon really sets this simple card off! It was a cheap find from Michael's. 

Thanks for stopping by today! Hope your week is off to a great start! :)

Simple Sparrow

Hello all! Thanks for stopping by today! Today I have a sweet little card for you using one of the beautiful new bird sets by ODBd, called He Watches Me. It's been a little while since I played around with making some simple one-layers and I'm thinking you might see more from me with these new bird sets. They're prefect for making beautiful yet quick cards, don't ya think? I love how this one turned out!

The image and sentiment were stamped in Jet Black and I colored the sparrow with SU reinkers and a few markers. Edges are inked with Brocade Blue by SU. I love how bright all the colors turned out.- great springy feel to it, don't ya think? The lettuce ribbon is from Making Memories and the purple velvet ricrac from May Arts, I believe. Pearls were the final touch and once again, I was able to refrain for glitzing it up with any form of shimmer - hey its been known to happen now and again! LOL! :)

Thank for all your kind words for my card during the ODBd blog hop and for those of you kind enough to check in on me while I was absent - the computer and internet glitches are finally worked out!

Our Daily Bread designs February Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to the Our Daily Bread designs 

February Release Blog Hop!

Happy February to you! If you arrived here from Dawn's blog, you are in the right place! This is the last stop on our Blog Hop today!  If you just happened upon my blog, you might want to start at the Our Daily Bread designs Blog to be sure you hop in the correct order, because we are having a Scripture Hop, and you will be collecting our Secret Scripture Words as you hop along, so you will want them in the order given!   

You have until Thurs. Feb 4th at 8:00PM EST to complete the requirements to be eligible to win.

The exciting news is that there will be THREE WONDERFUL WINNERS who will each receive a $15.00 Gift Certificate to the Our Daily Bread designs Store to go toward the stamps of your choice! Winners will be randomly chosen from all the qualified entries.

Here is what you need to do to be eligable to win:

•  Hop from blog to blog in the order given below, writing down the secret words you will find clearly written  in their post, and leaving a comment on each blog.

•  Return to the Our Daily Bread designs Blog and leave a comment that you completed the hop and left comments for each designer.

•  Email  Grace at:   gnywening@yahoo.com - In the email, give her the secret words you found in order .... they will spell out a Scripture verse. 

•  For an extra chance to win, send her another email telling her the Scripture reference where the verse can be found.

Remember if for any reason a link is broken, simply return to the Our Daily Bread designs Blog  to see who is next on the list, leaving a space for the missing words.  Most often if you can't get on a blog or leave a comment now.... if you wait a little while and try again you usually can.

And now here is a card I created using stamps from two of the wonderful new sets!

I used the sweet little image from the Nest set and a verse from the He Watches Me set. The image is watercolored and eggs are highlighted with diamond stickles. I added the tiny Prima flowers with glue dots, then misted it with gold Glimmer Mist. I love how those bright flowers pop out at ya! The main image layers were diecut using Nestabilities Label Two dies, while I hand cut the little scripture tag. The paper patterns are by K&Company's Classic K Margo line. Hope you like my creation! :)

Now before you leave here are my two secret Scripture words for you ~ His head.

Since I'm the last stop, from here you will need to hop on back the Our Daily Bread designs Blog. 

Thanks so much for visiting today! 

An ODBd Challenge for You!

Are you ready for an Our Daily Bread designs Challenge? We sure are and the challenge for January is to use BROWN and PUNCHES or DIES on your creations. You do not have to use ODBd stamps to participate but we'd love to see them if you do own some! The challenge will run now through 8pm EST, Jan 23 and the prize for this challenge will be given to 2 participants ~ a $15 gift certificate to the ODBd store! You will need to leave a link to your creation via Mr. Linky on the ODBd blog and the keyword to use for uploading to online galleries is ODBDC110. Have fun getting creative with this challenge! :)


For this challenge I created a framed inspirational art piece using the images from the new Confirmation set and a verse from the new Baptism & Confirmation set. The cross image is stamped in Old Olive with the verse stamped over it in Chocolate Chip Craft ink and the edges sponged with Walnut Stain ink. I cut it out using the center piece of the Classic Frame die and then I diecut the frame out of glittered pattern paper from My Mind's Eye to fit around it. The frame and it's center were put together and popped up of off another glittered pattern from MME. I added the the punched photo corners and mounted it on a piece of shimmery metallic bronze ore cardstock and then a dark olive shade of cardstock. The final touch was adding a few pearls and the dove which I watercolored, cutout and highlighted parts with a Stardust Gelly Roll glitter pen. What do you think? :)

Be sure to stop on by the Our Daily Bread designs Blog to see what wonderful creations the rest of the design team has made! Here are links to a few of the girls' creations:

Sabrina
Julie
Christine
Debi
Kathy
Dawn
And as always you can certainly visit the ODBd Card Gallery for lots of design inspiration!

And don't forget - to celebrate our new Member company status, we’re giving away a BIG prize!!! If you visit the ODBD Forum Welcome Thread and leave a comment by January 10, (tomorrow) you will be entered in a drawing to win a $50.00 Gift Certificate to the ODBD Store!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a wonderful and blessed day! :)