A Touch of Grace

Hello,  thank you for stopping in, I wish you all a wonderful day!

Over the last several weeks I’ve struggled with the decision as to where I want the direction of my stamping life to go.  I was blessed and honored to serve as a design team member for the Dirty Dozen Design Team at Splitcoaststampers. I’ve made many wonderful friends that I dearly treasure. 

So now that my term is up, where do I go from here?  Hence - my struggle. I’ve been fortunate to have received offers to do design team work for stamping companies, and until recently my heart was headed in that direction.  Recent events in my life changed that focus.  In May my pastor and his son were taken from us in a tragic plane crash.  On the day of their funerals my three year old niece drowned in yet another tragic accident.  My heart was burdened with grief and I wondered how I would finish out my term with the Dirty Dozen.  God stepped in and gave me comfort as no other could. 

After much thought and soul searching I’ve made the decision to step back from design team work and to spend the precious time we’re given with my family.  As many designers will attest, design work takes a tremendous amount of time.  There is so much I want to do and I hope this Fall to move forward with my dreams.  I would like to take drawing and painting classes to further develop watercolor techniques.  Over the next few weeks I hope to be posting what I’ll call my “work from the heart”.   What is work from the heart?  Well, in my case, it will be work that inspires me.  I hope you join me on my journey. I would like to share a devotional with you, followed by a verse that touches my heart:

*The world bombards us with promises - promises of beauty, popularity, wealth, and fame.  But most of the worlds’ promises are empty - just glitzy advertising that fails to live up to its promises.  And so we become cynical and feel that it might be “safer” to live without hope.  Failure to live up to expectations - our own and other’s - surrounds us on every side.  And we wonder if there is anyone we can trust completely.

Then we turn to the Bible and find that it offers a higher hope: the ability to endure the difficult days we face, and the promise of a life filled with God’s presence, now and forever.  As we focus on the promises of God, we find a hope that sustains us, and a peace that passes all understanding.  Because God is faithful to His Word even when we lose heart.  Let the promises of God fill your heart with joy and your mouth with praise, today and always.

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, And whose hope is the Lord . . Jeremiah 17:7

*Promises From God for Women

I love the Christmas in July theme and thought I’d better get this project in before the end of the month.  I designed this watercolor picture in December 2007 for a color challenge that my Dirty Dozen sister, Emily Giovanni, hosted.  Emily I love your color challenges girl, you took me out of my traditional Christmas “color” box and forced me to explore.  I would never have thought to use Real Red, Certainly Celery, and Taken With Teal for a Christmas project and look how beautiful it turned out.  Thank you, Sweetie!

• Stamps:   Flourishes
• Paper:  Basic Black, Certainly Celery, Canson watercolor paper
• Ink:  Versamark
• Accessories:  Tombow markers, watercolor brush, Ranger gold EP, heating tool, Swarovski crystals, Dimensionals, sheer ribbon, gold cord

I designed this poinsettia card for a few of my friends.  You may have seen it back in December when Sharon Johnson posted it on her blog.  It’s in my SCS gallery as well.  The Me & Carrie Lou stamps are so versatile, this card shows the full image of the poinsettia in the card above. 

• Stamps:  A Muse sentiment, IBB, Fantastic Foliage
• Paper:  Basic Black, Real Red, Old Olive , Canson watercolor paper
• Ink:  Basic Black, Versamark
• Accessories:  sheer ribbon, gold cord, circle punches, Yarka watercolor paints, SU markers, Ranger gold EP, Dimensionals, heating tool, watercolor paintbrush

Well, let’s see how long this lasts .  .  .  .  those of you who know me, know that I’ve really had my heels dug deep down in the mud on the issue of blogging.  Please have patience, this is all new to me and I’m sure there are going to be quite a few errors before I get it all down pat!  This blog will be a work-in-progress over the next several weeks; hopefully, I’ll get all the bugs out quickly and construction will soon be complete.

To those of you who don’t know me, I’m Jerri Jimenez.  I’m known as “Jerri Kay” at Splitcoaststampers, a wonderful community of stampers from all over the world.  I have just completed six months of design work for the Dirty Dozen Design Team at Splitcoast.  I’m a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator and teach technique classes in my home.  I’ve been invited to teach watercolor classes at Violette’s in Lakeland, Florida, a wonderful shop that features scrapbooking as well as rubber stamps. 

Once I get this blog “gig” down pat, I hope to be doing tutorials on some of my projects.  I love creating 3-D items, as well as watercoloring.  For my first upload, I’d like to share this picture that I designed, embossed and watercolored in June of 2007.  It was my first attempt at a project this size and I was very pleased with the way it turned out.  The picture measures 11″ x 14.”  I have yet to get it framed, but eventually I will.

Supplies used: 

• Paper:  Canson 140 cold pressed watercolor paper
• Stamps:  Me & Carrie Lou
• Inks:  Versamark
• Accessories:  Heating tool, watercolor brush, Tombow markers, Pearl Ex, Ranger Gold EP, White EP