A Christmas Prayer

I would like to share this little prayer as my Christmas wish and blessings to all of my online friends. A special thanks to the wonderful staff of pcCrafter and all of my Hugsisters (and brother) on the message board. And for those of you who have been reading my little contributions, a special thanks to you.

This is my favorite time of the year! I have loved Christmas with an overwhelming love for as long as I can remember. I love the Reason for the season and I love the celebration, the warmth, the sharing and the love outpoured during this holiday.

Our family is an empty nest family now but that hasn't changed the fact that I love Christmas. I don't have as much shopping or crafting to do since our list has dwindled down over the years. I have a small family to shop or create items for. This year the family will be getting a lot of books…but shhhh…don't tell them…and some of you probably know which book! (Where's Thena ? I Need a Poem About…)

Each month I look at the artwork by all of the wonderful artists here and decide which of my pages I want to share with you and how to give you a taste of each of their work plus share with you my love of digital scrapbooking. This month is no different. I hope when you see the images I've chosen you will check out the rest of the artist's work as well.

There are so many wonderful programs on the market and for the last three years I have used Picture It and Digital Image Pro because they are so affordable and user friendly. I will start to introduce some other programs to you so that you can see what they can do as well. I will tell you in each case which program I used to create the project.

Let's get started now and create some fun!

Project 1: Look Mom No “L”

My friend Carrie's little Ryan inspired this page as he played with the snowmen while we were shopping!

1. I created a new page and filled it with color and added an effect to mimic the look of snow.
2. I added a mat, filled it with color and used the edge function to make it more winter like.
3. I added letters and embossed them in DIP (Digital Image Pro) using the effects function.
4. I added paperclips (from cottagearts.net ) to hold it onto the page.

Project 2: A Taste of California Sunshine

Sharon 's family furnished me with snow photos for these wonderful Creatables!

1. The background is from Snow Friends by Lori Gardner.
2. I added the photos and mats and going to effects in DIP, I used the bubble effect on each one.
3. After I added the photos, I created a new page filled with white and added the white page on top.
4. I added the bubble effect to the white and then used the gradual transparency feature to add a snowman feel to the page.

Project 2a:

The same page without the added effects. The only difference is that I created a new layer and added it on top of this page.

Project 3: Winter

1. I used the magic wand in DIP and removed the white from the center of the page.
2. I added the photo as the bottom layer.
3. I added the mat for the title and used the distort option to add a bit of shape to the mat.
   

Project 4: Happiness is….

Thanks to Gamma2five for the loan of her son and granddaughter!

1. I created a new page and filled it with white.
2. I used the effect option in DIP and added the bubbles to mimic snow.
3. I added the imageart and used the magic wand to remove the center of the snowball.
4. I used the fill with picture function to add Sharon 's family to the snowball.

    

Project 5 and 5a: Creating kaleidoscopes from Creatables and photos

1. 1. Just to show you what fun things you can do with your software. These elements were created using Dazzling Reflections and can add a bit of whimsy to your pages!
   

Project 6: Happy Chanukah

1. Using the images from Noel by Susan Seals and an original poem I added the different elements to a plain page filled with blue.
2. I then used the effects option to add interest to the background .
3. I added the poem to the tag and resized both to fit.
   



 

There you go, some festive and fun filled pages for the holidays. There are literally so many Creatables for the holiday season that I could have gone on for days and created pages to suit every taste. There are the whimsical, the homespun, the cartoonlike, and the religious and realistic all waiting in your computer for you to choose!

As I write this I am aware that so many of you are facing the Christmas holidays without your loved ones who are serving overseas. I offer my heartfelt appreciation and sincere prayers for their safety and your peace of mind as they make this awesome sacrifice for us all.

Your assignment is a simple one for this month:

Keep our military members in your hearts and prayers until this conflict is over and they return to us.

Have a wonderful and blessed holiday and meet me back here to welcome in the new year!

Hugs, Thena

A Christmas Prayer

Lord, please create a cradle in my heart
Where baby Jesus can be born
And let the love within me
Be enough to keep Him warm...

And Father let Your love flow through me
In such a special way
That the wonderful joy of Christmas
Would stay with me every day!

Oh, make my heart a worthy place
For the child to come and stay
And I thank you for that greatest gift
You gave us on Christmas Day!

Thena Smith
*A Christmas Sampler by Laurie Furnell