I promised that I would do a freebie for those of you that were so patient during my loooooong break in posting.  I also got a request for a butterfly bookmark for a Women’s retreat so I decided to combine their request with the upcoming graduation season and provide a bookmark for you to include as a package topper, or to add inside your graduation card envelope.

You can print them on card stock and laminate as a basic bookmark or cut out the butterflies that are included and make them 3 dimensional.  Use foam double stick tape to attach your butterflies and perhaps a little glitter or jewels and you will have a very special little gift!

LINK TO FREEBIE DOWNLOAD HERE

This is made out of the Winged Jewels Clip Art Kits which I am going to be uploading this weekend to this site.

With all the snowy winter weather spreading into such strange places as New Orleans!!!  I thought I would create an “It’s Snow Fun” Gift tag set Freebie for you!

In addition to the freebie, the art set from which it was created was uploaded into the AimeeAsher store yesterday.

TO DOWNLOAD THE FREEBIES:

CLICK ON THIS LINK and it will take you to my store in the Aimee Asher Elite Digital Store.  You will have to register in order to order from the store, but there will be no cost to you.  Also, you may choose to receive a newsletter that goes out with store specials and freebies (or choose not to receive it)  There are two freebies in my store, both with the red bow on the front cover image.  Put them in your cart and then feel free to browse the other artist’s stores for other goodies (all marked by the red bow).

It’s our way of saying, “Merry Christmas” to all of you!  We’re also having a “Happy New Year” event that you’ll find out about if you sign up for the newsletter!   The main address for Aimee Asher Elite is www.aimeeasher.com, bookmark it and check back often!  There are all kinds of activities to be discovered there.  Many of your favorite artists have groups you can join.  There’s a wonderful message board where ladies share ideas, pray for each other and have a lot of fun.

LINK TO FREEBIE GIFT TAG HERE.

This freebie is courtesy of Kath (“the Brat”) from The Aimee Asher Community www.aimeeasher.com

Kath is such a giving person, and wanted to share her creativity with all of you.  She made this tag using my “Windows on Christmas” Digital Clip Art and Crafting Kit LINK TO KIT HERE and a kit that hasn’t been loaded into the store yet, “Victorian Rose Christmas”

This freebie also kicks off our Christmas Story reading, which begins in the post below this one.  Each day I will post a little of the Christmas Story to help all of us keep our focus in the chaos of the season.  Come bring your cup of coffee or tea, put your feet up and join all of us as we prepare for the holidays together!

LINK TO CHRISTMAS GIFT TAG FREEBIE HERE Here’s a little freebie treat for you that is made out of my “Contemporary Christmas 2″ kits, both the paper pack and Digital Clip Art kit coordinate with it.  It’s a three dimensional, layered gift tag that you can make quite easily and glitz up with glitter, jewels or?  I personally adore decorating my packages with really special gift tags so I hope you’ll enjoy this little gift.

I think that this Christmas is going to be both a challenge and a blessing.  We all have a little less “excess” to go overboard with Christmas gifts so if you are crafty at all, it’s an opportunity to use your gifts and talents to make up the difference!  My very favorite Christmas memories are the ones where I spent time making my gifts for my family members rather than last minute rushing through the stores and grabbing what I could find and afford.

The real meaning of Christmas isn’t the glitz, glamour and race to outspend each other — it’s that God gave His most precious gift, His only begotten Son to a world that was lost without Him.  It’s that God wanted to enlarge His family through that gift and that His passionate desire is that we would have His Peace fill our lives and our world.

So as we head into the fall (yippee on the brisk cool mornings, I LOVE THEM!)  Let’s think of really meaningful gifts we can give to those we love.  If you have grandchildren, perhaps you could take them for a weekend to allow their parents time to rediscover their love for one another.  If you have a neighbor that is growing old and frail, perhaps you could take them with you to see the Christmas lights.  There are so many meaningful things that we can do for each other that cost very little if anything — except of course our TIME, which is the most valuable and limited thing we own.

CONGRATULATIONS!  THE BLOG CONTEST WINNER THIS MORNING IS THE 4TH COMMENT ON THIS POST:  SEE POST HERE

LINK TO DOWNLOAD FREE RECIPE CARD SET I created a new recipe card set to give away so I could “show off” the new “Sweet Desserts 1″ Digital Clip Art Kit and the new “Abigail’s Sinful Desserts 1″ Recipe Card Gift Box and Food Gift Set.  This will give you a chance to see the new art up close and personally.

There are two, two-sided recipe card layouts, with and without title and three versions of a single 4″ x 6″ recipe card.  I hope you’ll enjoy your “non-fattening” treat!

The art used in this kit can be found here: LINK TO STORE FOR SWEET DESSERTS 1 ART KIT

Coordinating Chocolate Dessert Art:  LINK TO STORE FOR SWEET CHOCOLATE ART KIT & LINK TO SWEET CHOCOLATE PAPER PACK

The Crafting kit for making your own Recipe Card Gift Box, recipe cards, food gift labels and tags:  LINK TO STORE FOR “ABIGAIL’S SINFUL DESSERTS 1″

SCRIPTURE OF THE DAY: Rom 15:13  May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.   NIV

PRAYER:  Lord, in uncertain times, when I read the headlines and don’t know what the future holds, help me to remember that You are “The God of Hope” and You hold both the future and me in Your hands!  Let that hope become so real to my heart that it fills me with all joy and peace as I grow in trusting you.

Help my joy and peace overflow to all those that share my life by the power of the Holy Spirit!  I want to have contagious joy, contagious hope and contagious peace!  AMEN

CLICK HERE FOR LINK TO FREE RECIPE CARD DOWNLOAD Those of you that know me, know that I ADORE THE FALL!!!  The first crisp day of the fall season is one of my favorite days of the year.  Perhaps it’s because I live in a very warm summer area of the country and don’t particularly enjoy heat.  Perhaps it is because I love the warm, spiritual focus of Thanksgiving and Christmas and the first day of fall reminds us all that these seasons are approaching.  All I know is that I felt the tiniest hint of coolness a night or two ago and my heart soared, LOL!

I am working on brand new art this week.  Normally I don’t release brand new art to digital use until 2 or 3 years of licensing has passed, but I’m going to break my rules on this one.  I’ve been painting up a storm and have a freebie to give you a sneak peek of what’s to come.

These recipe cards show art from two of the kits, one is purely pumpkins and fall, the other is a very sweet, non-scary Halloween kit.  Each is available in a lined and unlined version so you can hand write or type in your recipes.  I hope you’ll enjoy both the sneak peek and the freebie recipe cards.

SCRIPTURE OF THE DAY:  Ps 5:11-12  But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy.  Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you.   For surely, O LORD, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favor as with a shield.  NIV

PRAYER:  Lord, help me to remember as I struggle with the challenges of each day that you desire to be a refuge for me to run into.  You want me to come with you with each stress, each joy, each sadness and trouble.  Basically, you want me to come to you with EVERYTHING!

A refuge is a safe place, a resting place and a place that can be defended.  Help me to rejoice knowing that you are standing guard over me and surrounding me with your inpenetrable shield.  Thank you Lord that you are blessing my life as I rest and rejoice in you.  AMEN

CLICK HERE FOR DOWNLOAD LINK I just had to make up a recipe card out of this set, it’s so perfect for these uses.  So I decided to share it to celebrate my first kits being up at Aimee Asher Elite (at www.aimeeasher.com)  I have around 20 kits up of 185 or so to get there, it’s going to be a long month!!!!

The art kit that was used to make this card is available here in my blog store as well as at www.aimeeasher.com where there’s also a lot of new and beautiful art from many of my friends.  I was asked where I would prefer someone purchase the kits — either place!  It’s all the same to me

LINK HAS BEEN DISABLED, FREEBIES ARE ONLY AVAILABLE FOR ONE WEEK.  I first offered this freebie last summer, so you might already have it, but for those who are new since then it contains a two-sided blank summer art recipe card , a post card, a gift tag and two versions of a party invite!

If you’re having a pool party, summer get together, kids sleep over or any fun family event, I hope you’ll find this helpful in planning the affair.  This set coordinates with the other two Summer Fun series kits.  It will only be available for one week so get it while it’s hot!

I was talking to a girlfriend on the phone this weekend and decided to put her on the speaker phone and finally tackle cleaning up my computer desk a little. I brought a trash can in and started throwing things away.  I kid you not and am NOT EXAGGERATING my desk was 7-8″ deep in “stuff”  The only reason I finally broke down and cleaned it was three times this week things slid off the pile to the floor like an avalanche!

1/2 way down through the pile, what do I discover?  A 1/2 lb Hershey’s chocolate bar that I “lost” months ago!!!!!!!!!!!!  OMG I started laughing so hard.

The moral of the story is if your craft room or desk is dirty, you might want to clean it, the craft fairy might have hidden some chocolate in it as a reward for your efforts!!!!  LOL!   So many ladies wanted a piece of that candy bar (at both the www.aimeeasher.com and www.pccrafter.com message boards) that I decided I had to figure out a way to share the bar without playing favorites!

So, I made a candy bar wrapper that fits an 8 oz Hershey’s bar!  since I can’t share my bar with all of you, if you want to go buy yourself a bar you can wrap it as a present from me before you eat it !  This kit will be FREE for one week (until next Saturday, July 12th, 2008) and then it will be added into another kit I’m working on that is a printable kit altered gallon can  kit with card, envelope and gift tags.  DOWNLOAD  no longer available

With Independence Day (in the United States) coming in just one month, I wanted to create a kit that I have had on my heart for a very long time.  There are wonderful people and organizations all over our nation that are doing whatever they can to make sure our troops overseas know that they are loved, supported and appreciated. 

In my own tiny church there is a large group of mostly women that have been doing an incredibly good job at this.  The ministry is called "Love our Troops," and they send personal notes in greeting cards, care packages and make handmade cooling scarves to express their love and encourage the young men and women that are serving the Afghani and Iraqi people as well as protecting our nation.   

Though our family has sent dozens of cards, because of my schedule I haven’t been able to do as much as my heart desires.  I began to think about how I could enlarge the effort and realized that I can create a kit that just might facilitate a lot of other people to make cards and send them!

This kit contains 3 greeting cards, one is blank for your own message and two matching envelopes.  It is FREE for personal use or for organizations that will be encouraging the troops.  You can download the kit by clicking on the picture at the top of this post and a window will pop up from 4shared.com.  When you click on that window it could take a while for the download button to appear at the top left of the page (a couple of minutes if you have slower internet service).  All you have to do is click on that download button and select a place to download it to on your hard drive.

For those of you who will send these cards out, bless you!!!!!  Oh, and if  you believe in the power of prayer, take a moment to pray for the service member that you are sending it to. 

The BLOG CONTEST WINNER FOR MAY IS the first commentor on this post: http://www.daisiecompany.com/blogs/audreyjeanne/?p=367

If you happened to read any of Lambie’s 30 some comments during the short run of the contest, you might have noticed a theme "How about a strawberry bookmark freebie?!!!!"  I had promised a freebie this week, so in honor of my 200,000 visitor, here’s a book mark for your enjoyment.

There are two versions, one blank for your own message and one with a friendship message already included.  To download your gift, simply click on the image and a 4shared.com window will pop up. 

I’m working on finishing up the kit for the store, I’ll let you know when it will be ready, in the meantime you’ll be able to enjoy a little "taste!"

If you go to this post http://www.daisiecompany.com/blogs/audreyjeanne/?p=74  I had made a freebie take out box with my Gerbera Daisy kit and I the links etc. are still active.  If you didn’t grab it last year, enjoy it for this year while I’m gone!

To download the project you will have to click on the link above, then click on the picture in that post.  That will open a window that will lead you to the download.

This is an easy print, cut and assemble project that is suitable for most upper grade school aged children with a little help.  For smaller children you might want to cut and assemble then let them decorate with glitter etc.

Have fun!

As I have been working on the new Easter/Spring kit "Celebrating Spring" my thoughts turned towards the Easter celebration that is coming so quickly and I want to create several little things that can be used by Mothers, Grandmothers, and Sunday School Teachers to let little ones know how much they are loved.  That is ultimately the essence of the message and sacrifice of Easter.

I’ve created this little bookmark for you to down load.  All that you need to do is click on the image and it will take you to the download location.  Enjoy!

We (fingers and toes crossed) will be going to visit our new grandson (and maybe his parents too ) tomorrow and I’ll be gone for a couple of days.  We’ll hopefully have time to post some pictures before we head out for a week’s vacation in the Bahamas.

So posting will be pretty light.  We’ll be home March 1st and will be right back at the creating, perhaps with a little island twist to it. 

A quck reminder to new readers.  We have a drawing twice a month where I give away a free set of digital graphics.  All you have to do to enter the contest is to post a comment on any post that I make during that month and we draw randomly from those comments to pick the winner.  The drawing is on the 1st and the 16th of the month (assuming I don’t forget LOL!) 

Can you believe that it is already February?!  My grandson will be born this month, whoo hooo!  Ariane is now 2 days over due so we’re on pins and needles, LOL!  It’s also Valentine’s month for those of us in the United States, so I wanted to do a little freebie that would work for us and for the rest of you around the world who don’t celebrate the day.

This bookmark can be uploaded by clicking on the picture which will start the process.  This freebie is subject to the terms of use at THE DAISIE COMPANY (www.daisiecompany.com)  please don’t pass it along directly to your friends, direct them here to get it.

This gives you the tiniest preview of the Antiqued Victorian Pansies 3 set which will feature some wonderful paisleys that you can see in the background of the bookmark!  I hope you’ll enjoy.  Please feel free to pass this link along on any message boards, yahoo groups etc. that you are part of.  If you do and you post a comment as to the group address that you posted it to, I will email you another special freebie as a thank you!

BLOG CONTEST WINNER FOR JANUARY 15-31 IS THE 11TH POST ON THE 26TH DAY, CONGRATULATIONS!  She wins the Antiqued Victorian Violets Paper Pack 1 (if she hasn’t purchased it already, if she has, we’ll adjust for her!)

THE SCRIPTURE OF THE DAY:1 Cor 13:12-13
Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. NIV

PRAYER:  Lord, when these words were written, mirrors were warped, dark reflective surfaces that didn’t perfectly "mirror" the image being reflected but gave a shadowy glimpse.  So many days when I think about you, heaven, the life that is to be and the life I am leading now, I feel like I only have that shadowy hint of what is to come. 

But faith, hope and love help to guide me along that path to the place where one day I will see clearly, face-to-face.  Give me the strength to continue walking along that path each day and help me to know and feel you love for me as I am making the journey.  Amen

Here’s the freebie that I promised you since I’ve been a busy girl all week and haven’t posted much (I’m feeling guilty, guilty, guilty!  LOL!)  You can use them with the gift bags that are still free at THE DAISIE COMPANY, just scroll down a few posts and there’s a link when you click on the picture.

To go to the download, just click on the picture and follow the directions.  This freebie is subject to THE DAISIE COMPANY’S Terms of Use (http://www.daisiecompany.com/cart/index.php?main_page=conditions)

The kits and font that coordinates with these freebies are "Audrey Jeanne’s Whimsical Font" which is available in both a personal and commercial use package and can be found Here:  PERSONAL http://www.daisiecompany.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2165

COMMERCIAL:  http://www.daisiecompany.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2164

 Audrey Jeanne’s "My Heart’s Garden" and "My Heart’s Garden Paper Pack" and can be found here: http://www.daisiecompany.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2140 and here: http://www.daisiecompany.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2141

I hope you’ll enjoy this little goodie, please feel free to let any friends you know would enjoy it know about it, and you can post the link on any message boards you are part of.

I must run, as I was posting this message, we got a phone call that a dear friend of our just passed away.  He was 95 years old and the father/grandfather/great-grandfather to a family that is as close as family to us.  We are going down to be with them.  Everett knew the Lord, was suffering from Alzheimer’s and just last week said, "I wish the Lord would just take me home, I’m ready."  So we grieve for his family but rejoice with him.   AJ