Maria's craft journal

2018-10-14T15:57:00.000+02:00

Hello, friends! Card making is my creative outlet and a way to free my mind. Working with leftover stamped paper is very rewarding. I had a large piece of paper I had stamped. It was sitting for a long time and I knew I had to use it of lose it. My fellow stamper Jacqueline de Groot always encourages me to think out of the box. So I decided to turn the summer leaf die into fall leaves. I love how cute they have turned out.

This fall it seems everyone is enjoying the beauty of the changing colors. There are lots of people in the parks, lots of picture on the social media. I have made some memories too for my kids' sake. Blessings, Maria

A short update

2017-09-02T21:20:00.001+02:00

Hello dear friends!

I could not believe I was not writing in my blog since December. Probably because I had 3 homeschoolers in my home. The capslock was stuck in my computer keyboard and I did not want to scare people off by typing only capital letters... I will keep this post short. Most of the summer we stayed in the city due-to financial reasons. In late May we took a trip and were part of a wonderful Christian conference. The focus was the fruit of the gospel that we have in our lives. It was very intense but so packed with beautiful truths. I will listen to the audio of the conference again and again.

So I wanted a break from studying and I decided it was high time I finished some of my long time wips. I started sorting our bags of fabric. And taught one of my sons to sew a simple log cabin blog. I could not stop and in a few days I had a new quilt top in Christmas colors...

I was able to finish a few projects I will share later. Many years ago I bought some pretty fabric intending to make pillow cases for my son and I never did. This summer I wanted to finally sit down and make the pillowcases. These are fun and quick projects. Now as I am very short of time, I have to learn how to sew fast:)

I will share the link to the Easy Tube Pillow Case Tutorial - https://youtu.be/MrYWCma9wgM I want to make more of these and teach my friends to make pillow cases for their families. Such a budget saver!

Cheers, Maria

Merry Christmas!

2016-12-25T18:08:00.001+02:00

Merry Christmas, dear friends! Our Savior was born! We had a very full year and December is always a challenge. So with years comes wisdom, now if I want to make some special Christmas party for friends, I do it early, in the first half of December. Because many people get too busy before the New Year, some leave the city, others get sick. So the closer it gets to the end of the month, the lower the chances are that we can get together... I had a Christmas party for our friends. We closed our English club for a holiday. We read a story of Christ's birth, solved Christmas puzzles, made a Candy Cane craft and had a gingerbread tea party.

With homeschooling 3 sons this year, I feel more responsibility to do it well. One of my sons has had an eye trauma. He has to wear a patch for 6 hours a day. I need to be creative how to teach him, as he can not read or write while he is training his weak eye. He is more patient now, but I was very hard on us at first. I encourage him by saying that from an early age God is building his character.

We have celebrated Christmas today at our church. We've had a wonderful celebration.

I managed to carve some time for crafting. I colored some pieces ahead of time, so I could just finish cards when I needed them. I have revisited some of my designs. For the first time I have made a 3-d dear card. Why have not I thought about it before? The new Hero Arts Candy Cane cling rubber stamp. It looks pretty cut into a frame. I am not quite happy with the embossing powder falling off. I will need to look for other red ep.

I have made Bible memory gift cards with Isaiah and Micah's prophecies on Jesus' birth.

Some more Christmas cards and tags with Bible verses inside.

Thank you for visiting! Maria

Autumn inspiration

2016-10-14T20:23:00.002+02:00

Hello, dear friends! Our homeschooling life is so intense that now it is harder than ever to find some time for crafts let alone blogging. I just want to say "hello" and share some autumn inspiration with my crafty fellows.

These are one layer cards. I stamped a large piece of watercolor paper with distress inks and water. I had some cut out leaves which add a bit of interest to the cards and cut them into card sizes. The stamps are Carte Postale, Envelope pattern and Leaf Prints by Hero Arts and Clock by Heidi Swapp.

Before I decide that they will be quick one layer cards, I cut some of the background into small sections. These look nice against bright cardbases and make a quick gift set! Have a restful week-end. Maria

Wine label cards and a new collage

2016-06-30T15:53:00.000+02:00

Dear friends,

May has flown by. I want to share a few cards before I say "good-bye" for summer.

We are blessed with wonderful friends. My husband's colleague and his wife gave us a gift of a free photo session. It took some preparation on my part, but all the work was worth it, as the pictures have turned out perfectly.

My dear friend Jacqueline has come up with the beautiful idea of using wine labels on cards. These labels are printed on high quality paper with some subtle designs. So inks and a bit of water work well on them.

I have white embossed the beautiful blooms on watercolor paper and colored them with watercolor paints very quickly. I die cut and layered the flowers using some 3d adhesive.

Most of the stamp are by Hero Arts. There's one new stamp by Penny Black, Botanical Notes.

These collages are so enjoyable to make and are a wonderful gift too. This is a thank you gift for a sweet lady, our speech therapist, who has done an excellent job helping my 7 y.o. son to have a clear articulation. They both have worked hard! I am so thankful!

Thank you for visiting my creative nook, Maria

Celebrating the prize

2016-04-25T09:47:00.000+02:00

Hello, dear friends!

With this beautiful card I am celebrating the fact that I have received my prize from Hero Arts. Thank you, Hero Arts! It was mailed to me twice to Russia in 2014. The first time it was returned to the USA, and the second package was lost. In April I was visiting in CA and wrote to Libby that I was in the USA. The company kindly provided me with a 50 USD of shopping spree in the online shop. I chose the Color Layering Orchid In A Pot and a matching die. I also picked up a 3-D Two-Story House Fancy Die for myself and my kids to play with.

Figuring how to weave the orchards around the card window kept me late into the night. I could not put it aside till I finished it.

I had wonderful time at my friend's house in Paso Robles. All my four kids enjoyed the beautiful weather and hospitality in CA.

CL946 Color Layering Orchid In A Pot DI177 Orchid In A Pot Frame Cuts The sentiment is from My Monthly Hero kit, April 2016 release

The inks used are soft granite, butter bar, orange soda and tomato pale. The I've used glossy accents for the centers of the flowers. The pp is Color Ways by Paper House from Michael's.

Thank you for visiting!

Maria

April monthly kit from Hero Arts

2016-04-16T16:02:00.002+02:00

Hello, friends!

I have been away for 4 weeks. I had a beautiful time visiting with my dear friend in Paso Robles, California. There is a lot to choose from to share. The kids had a great time. They studied and took school exams via Internet and spent time with my dear friend Delisa in the afternoon practicing English and learning how to cook healthy meals from fresh produce and essential oils.

I will share about our time in Paso Robles in my next post.

While in CA, I jumped at an opportunity to order an April stamp kit from Hero Arts. This is my birthday present from my DH. I was glad I ordered it on the day of release, as within just two days it was all sold.

Here's my first take at the kit.I have used the beautiful flower set and dies from the set, as well as Daniel Smith watercolor pallet, some watercolor paper from Recollections resist paper pad and an eggplant embossing powder both for the flower and the sentiment.

I'd like to enter this card into Simon Says Stamp April showers bring may flowers and into Clean and Simple challenge by A blog named Hero

Thank you for visiting!

Maria

New cards for the 8th of March and the Kids' Fair

2016-02-23T14:38:00.002+02:00

Hello, friends,

After quite a while I finally have a few cards to share. Our family is preparing for a trip to California in a few weeks. We will spend a month there. We'll continue to homeschool. My friend opens her home for us. So the kids will experience life in the USA. We will be blessed to visit with some of our friends whom we met in Russia. Some will fly to see us.

After an eye trauma my youngest son is forbidden to do any sports (at least for now). Now he is attending two choirs and enjoys singing. Recently his choir sang in a very special place in Philharmonia in the centre of St.Petersburg.

Fedor looks so happy. I appreciate how much the choir director does for the kids. So I have volunteered to make cards and tags to decorate the gifts the parents will give her and the piano accompanist. The occasion is the 8th of March, a holiday when women in Russia are acknowledged.

The watercolor paper was dipped in inks and water and dried a few times. Then I heat embossed the birds in white and bronze.

And these are some of the many simple cards I have made to sell at the Kids' Fair organized at the 3d Homeschooling conference in St.Petersburg early March. The kids will learn pricing and selling. They have made a bunch of cards to sell too.

Thank you for visiting!

Maria

Happy New year and Merry Christmas!

2015-12-31T18:42:00.000+02:00

Hello, friends,

I am here to share a few cards and wish you Merry Christmas and Happy New year! We have had a year full of events, dear people, traveling, trials, generous gifts. We are thankful!

These cards are simple card bases with hanging ornaments. You can use them as Christmas decorations, take them off the card and decorate a package of home-made cookies or or use as gift tag. This way, as the ornament part can have a second life.

I had lots of inches left from last year card making. I meant to make a winter collage, but I never did. So I have used them on this card.

The last card is very simple and quick. The Tiny star background stamp by Hero arts is very versatile. The Russian sentiment Happy New year was heat embossed in silver.

See you in the new year!

Maria

2015-11-08T19:02:00.000+02:00

Hello, friends,

Recently I have resumed making cards. My favorite way is to play with scraps and make something simple.

Here're two of my last creations. One is a paper pieced postal themed card, the other is built around a purple scrap of the paper I used to test a solid image of the postal stamps (Carte Postale by Hero Arts). Nothing goes to waste.

I am looking forward to some craft time with a very special friend tomorrow.

I want to share a picture from my son's 9th birthday. We've had a big pirate party for him, his new friends we've made in Saint Petersburg. My eldest son and I planned and worked together late into the night to make it memorable. We are happy how it turned out.

Thank you for visiting! Have a great week!

Maria

Some art therapy

2015-08-10T22:05:00.000+02:00

Hello, dear friends! It is just hard to believe that I have not written anything in my blog since April. We homeschool though the summer with short breaks and getaways from the city. One of the highlights of the spring was the second conference on homeschooling and raising children in Christian families. I was very encouraged first of all in my faith. As we are in charge of our own schedule we can have breakfast and read the Scriptures in the morning before studying. This is becoming a blessed tradition. Our 6 y.o. son Fedor has just learned to read and he is very enthusiastic about the Bible. He sits down and reads aloud a chapter from one of the gospels or more till he is stopped. We have read part of the Proverbs, the book of Daniel and now we are in Mark. We discuss and write down some thoughts. This picture was taken in May. Timothy (8), Yegor (13), Fedor (6) and Sophia (2).

In July, right on my husband's birthday, Fedor suffered an eye trauma while playing with his brother. We spent the whole month at the hospital taking care of him. We are thankful for an outstanding surgeon, caring hospital stuff and lots of love and prayers from our friends. We believe that "...in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28). Fedor still needs more care and prayer for healing.

After a long break I was finally blessed to have some creativity escape for my soul. It feels therapeutic. All these cards have been made from scraps and leftover pieces from old projects.

For the cards I used a wine lable, patterned paper, distress inks, white embossing powder, Hero Arts stamps, pearls&gems and card bases.

Thank you for visiting!

Maria

Spring is in the air

2015-04-05T10:01:00.000+02:00

Hello, dear friends,

Almost all our family was sick and it took about four weeks for everyone to recover. I hope the sickness is not coming back. I am looking forward to warm days and more time outside.

Our Bibles study group finished studying the second part of the Motherwise materials focusing on the relationship with our husbands. Now we're embarking on discussing loving and disciplining our kids.I was inspired to dig into the first 4 chapters of the 1 Samuel trying to understand why Eli did not stop his sons from sinning. There's a powerful message from God in those passages. My main discoveries are - Samuel was devoted to serve the Lord from his mother's womb (his character contrasts that of Eli's sons) and Eli's ruin was due to his inability to discipline his children (He should have acted on his words).

I've made some spring cards. All stamps are Hero Arts. The bird is colored with Distress inks and water, popped up for dimension. I stamped it twice, so I would avoid cutting out the intricate feet. The tiny flowers from the Hero Arts' set Hexagons were both stamped on the branch and stamped on pattern paper and cut out to create some dimension. The centers are done with stickles.

My 5 y.o. son enjoys making these Easter basket(pocket) cards for friends from leftover pattern paper. The idea is from Pinterest.

Thank you for visiting! Maria

My tribute to my dear friend

2015-02-02T11:42:00.001+02:00

Dear friends!

I learned my my dear friend J L Thomas is now with the Lord. This letter is my tribute to this outstanding man of God.

I met J L Thomas during one of Josh McDowell mission trips in Moscow Russia over two decades ago when I worked as a translator. I was a new believer, a student and a young lady raised by three generations of divorced women. By God’s providence I ended up working for the team J L was in. Right from the first day we met, we became friends. J L shared his testimony, how he was struggling after the death of his dear wife and how God spoke to him through the message on the radio. He responded to Josh McDowell’s call to bring the Gospel to Russia. And his depression left him.

J L was God’s servant. I believe Our Heavenly Father placed him in my life to strengthen my faith and show me the life of a godly man. As he shared about his extended family I could not but be amazed at the hand of God on his life. When I visited him in the United States in 1996 and met his son and daughters, I saw their love and respect they have for him.

J L encouraged and challenged me by his example of following God, living for His Kingdom. He adopted me as his Russian daughter and took the place of my absent father, rejoiced with me when I graduated, counseled me on the marriage partner, disapproving of one young man and giving his stamp of approval on my husband-to-be. He visited me to see our fist born son. We have been keeping in touch. I have always felt loved and cared for by J L and Carlene. This love is supernatural and it comes from God. I am deeply thankful for their love and friendship, prayers and influence on my life.

JL Thomas was a loving, thoughtful, loyal and generous person with a great sense of humor. I am saying: Good-bye! I will see you again in Heaven!

Maria Doricheva

St.Petersburg, Russia

28 January 2015

Thailand adventure

2015-02-01T21:13:00.000+02:00

Hello, friends!

We're back from our trip to Thailand. It took about 21 hours one way and it was a great experience. The theme for the conference was investing your life. If I want to live for the Kingdom of God, how I can do this intentionally... I am thankful for the many new people I met and got to know. My life is more rich after the trip.

It was our second time in Thailand. I knew I would meet some special people and I wanted to make cards to give as gifts. So I repeated some of my favorite designs from the past.

I enter this potpourri of cards into the Simon Says Anything Goes challenge.

My dear husband took care of our daughter so I could go on a one day excursion with the boys. They did not want to go at first, as they enjoyed their friends and a great outdoor pool. So in faith I took them. How could the boys not enjoy riding an elephant and going by a boat? Even if it takes 3 hours to get there. Here're some pictures.

After visiting Chungkai War Cemetery and JEATH museum we had a fun motor boat ride to the famous bride on the River Qwai, built by the war prisoners during Japan invasion.

Yegor and Fedia had fun throwing bread crumbs to the fish at the river restaurant.

On the way to the famous bridge.

Fedia missed our first elephant ride, now he has grown enough to go.

Thank you for visiting!

Maria

Slowing down

2014-12-28T23:13:00.000+02:00

Hello, dear friends!

I grew to appreciate Pinterest more recently, as I find lots of useful information there. At first I thought it was mostly inspiring pictures... But recently I discovered Spiritual lessons for kids, encouragement for mothers. A few months ago I found a great exercise routine which changed my life a lot. I enjoy working out for 40 minutes and my body gets rid of stress.

After the 25th of December life is slowing down. As I have mentioned before, we started homeschooling our oldest children since last August. My oldest son, Yegor (6th grade), has passed his 2 last exams, this totals 5 yearly exams: Biology, Geography, English, Social Studies and Math. He mostly studied on his own with a bit of my help and encouragement, except for the math, he needed his father's help to prepare thoroughly. Timothy (2d grade) has passed 3 yearly exams: Science, Math and PE. He did very well for his age and temperament.

During Christmas season I want to give lots of cards, but my time is very limited, so this year I made lost of small cards with the Bible verses from Isaiah I quoted in my previous blogpost. I love these promises of the birth of Jesus, the names He would be called. During Christmas it is good to revisit them and I reminded myself I should not assume everyone knows them. So I printed them out and made these cute little cards. I gave them all away today after the church service.

This is all our family skiing at the near-by pine forest. I am so thankful for the beautiful weather, fresh air and sparkling snow. December feels much better compared to November.

Thank you for visiting!

Maria

Merry Christmas!

2014-12-25T11:31:00.003+02:00

Merry Christmas, dear friends! С Рождеством, дорогие друзья!

"Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel" (Isaiah 7:14).

"Итак Сам Господь даст вам знамение: се, Дева во чреве приимет и родит Сына, и нарекут имя Ему: Еммануил" Исайя 7:14.

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6).

"Ибо младенец родился нам - Сын дан нам; владычество на раменах Его, и нарекут имя Ему: Чудный, Советник, Бог крепкий, Отец вечности, Князь мира" Исайя 9:6.

Maria

Secret Santa swap

2014-12-22T21:47:00.000+02:00

Hello, friends! In November I took part in a Secret Santa Swap organized by the Hero Arts Flickr Group. For the swap each person sent a hand-made Christmas card, a Christmas ATC and a gift to the person we were playing Secret Santa to.

This is my SS package for Heather. It was a double challenge. First, I have never made an ATC (Artist's Trading Card) before. Second, I needed to make a card for an outstanding cardmaker and not fall on my face. If you visit her blog Stamping and Stitching you will see what I mean.

Looking for a smaller sentiment to fit the tiny size of the ATC, I discovered I already have two sentiments "Joy" in one stamp set but in different scale (Holiday Sayings by Hero Arts). This fit the bill perfectly! I stamped Tiny Star Background with water on the sentiment flag.

Here's a peek into the process. I took a large piece of watercolor paper and tested various colors, color combos, inks, embossing on top of watercolor backgrounds (Winter Trees by Hero Arts). I used perfect pearls mixed with water and distress inks to color the dear family (Winter diary by Scrapberry's). For the background I also tried first and second generations of stamping. So I had lots of options for my card and the pieces which did not turn out I could use later on for grid cards.

Thank you for visiting! Maria

November

2014-11-28T11:23:00.001+02:00

Hello, friends!

Thank you for all the congratulations on my win in the Hero Arts Holiday Challenge. I am looking forward to receiving my prize package in December.

November can be a very depressive month in St. Petersburg, as the sunset is as early as 4 pm, so we have short windows of day light in winter. This is something I need to adjust to.

I have learned how to make an Artist's Trading Card (ATC). I will reveal my Secret Santa card and an ATC, I made for the Hero Arts Flicker Group exchange, in 2 weeks.

My friend Zhenya Goncharova from Moscow bakes cakes for a living and when you visit Moscow you can order her cakes and pastries on-line. She liked my cards and came up with an idea to sell them together with her baked goods. So I made lost of birthday greeting cards and cards for all occasions and we'll see how it goes... It was another project to use up left over pieces from other projects. You can see that I love the Big Post Card stamp from Hero Arts. It makes a cute and quick background for my cards.

Thank you for visiting!
Maria

A birthday scrapbook

2014-11-07T12:39:00.000+02:00

Hello, friends!

Scrapbooking turns out to be a useful skill when you need a quick birthday gift. I had my hands full I needed to do while my husband was away on a business trip. So my oldest son Yegor came to rescue. We needed some good pictures of the birthday girl and we had none. So we came up with an idea to use the pictures that were publicly available on the Instagram. Yegor is studying programming so he knew how to download the pictures. He also whent to the nearest printshop and had them printed and trimmed to square shape. What a helper! I had a pink & yellow baby scrapbook kit I did not quite like and was going to give away. But as it was a quality product I decided I should simply alter the pink cover.

So I sat down and worked from 8 pm and was done by 1 am. It turned out beautifully and made a great gift to special friends. The following day we had so much fun at the birthday party with lots of guests and a hand-made pinata fish.

The 6X6 paper pads work great for this kind of albums as I even did not have to trim the backgrounds. They fitted exactly the size of the album pages. The letters on the cover were cut out of a pp from Travel Girl pad by October afternoon, I also used papers from Oxford Lane and Cambridge Court by My Mind's eye. This is the back of the album.

And a scrappy birthday card.

My 5 y.o. son loves to make cards. So he is welcome to use the leftover scraps.

Thank you for visiting! Maria

Christmas blessings

2014-10-22T14:26:00.001+03:00

Hello, dear friends!

I want to share a very special card with you. I had an idea to pair The Tiny Star Background and the Greates Gift somewhere on the back of my head for very long, but finally I had an opportunity to implement it. It feels good to start preparing this early for Christmas. As the holidays approach it will be harder to find time for hand-made gifts.

I started with applying distress inks on the white eggshell watercolor paper rectangle. Then I stamped the Greatest Gift central image and colored the hill and the stamped image with a black pen. After I masked the nativity I stamped the Tiny star background in embossing ink and heat embossed in gold. It is best to do the embossing part last. I rubbed on more distress inks and heat embossed the sentiment in gold.

I would like to enter these two tag cards into the Hero Arts Holiday challenge, the category Mad About Metallics. One of the conditions for the challenge is that the card has to have a tag.

UPD: I have used 3 distress inks: Mustard Seed, Rusty Hinge and Walnut Stain.

UPD2: My card was a winner! Please check Hero Arts blog.

Thank you for visiting! Maria

Life holds many special blessings...

2014-10-22T13:22:00.002+03:00

Hello, friends, The weather cools down and we have first snow already. We take advantage of the last days of good weather before it starts to rain and go for walks. I have finally learned to ride a bicycle! There is a nice pine forest nearby. It is our favorite for walks. To keep it interesting for the kids, I take hot tea a thermos and we buy some cookies on the way.

On the week-end I had a chance to have some craft time. I was amazed how quickly this card was created. I started with white embossing the Night Flower on the purple card base using masking technique and added the sentiment (Many Blessings by Hero Arts) and masked its upper part. I had the colored flower on hand. The beautiful sentiment game me an idea that one flower should stand out. It is hard to see on the picture but I colored all the flowers with Memento markers. To add some texture to the background I stamped it with the Envelope Pattern.

Thank you for visiting! Maria

Hydrangea

2014-10-17T11:52:00.001+03:00

Hello, friends!

This is one stamp I will probably be never tired of. It is so beautiful and there're endless opportunities to us it.

I was inspired by Shari Caroll's card. She does magic with distress inks. What I like about playing with inks is that you never know what the final result will be. I started with a rectangle of eggshell watercolor paper with an embossed image. I applied two distress inks (Mustard Seed and Faded Jeans) on the acrylic block and sprayed generously with water. Then I placed my paper face down on the block and let it dry and repeated till I was satisfied with the rich colors of the background. I colored the flower with the leftover mixture of Mustard Seed and Faded Jeans using a thin brush. After the inks dried up I embossed the Happy birthday sentiment (Friends are treasures by HA) in gold and finished the card.

Thank you for visiting!

Maria

Holiday Challenge

2014-10-14T19:52:00.004+03:00

Hello, friends,

This is a quick post. I would like to enter these two tag cards into the Hero Arts Holiday challenge, the category Tag it. One of the conditions for the challenge is that the card has to have a tag.

I like how easy it is to make a card with the Big Post card stamp. I have stamped and colored lots of cute birds with Distress inks, water and Perfect Pearls, so I have them on hand when I have time for more cards. The Music Background seems to be a perfect match for the bird. The sentiment is part of I ♡ books set. The branch is from Cherish cling. I also added some postal marks from Carte Postale.

The second card is my attempt at masking technique. The beautiful stamp is called Night Flower. The centers are embellished with Ice Stickles (Strawberry ice). The sentiment is from Cherish cling set. All stamps are Hero Arts.

Thank you for visiting! Maria

Autumn in St.Petersburg

2014-10-10T15:24:00.000+03:00

Hello, friends,

We have settled well in St.Petersburg. And we all love being here. It is a smaller city compared to Moscow. People are very nice, and I am not used to this. The life here is not so fast. We have switched into a homeschool mode and this helps to have a slower lifestyle too. 6 days I help my 12 year old and 7,5 year old sons with school. My youngest son learns reading and enjoys filling in study books and playing a lot with lego. I see a great reward in the fact that we're not separated during the day. The boys have to work through the conflicts during the day. Our mornings are free of rushing, we have breakfast and read the Bible before we start a school day.

I am blessed here with new friends. This month we started a women's group in our home. We use Denise Glenn's MotherWise materials. I like the words of wisdom in Sally Clarkson's book The Mission of motherhood. She said that not many people take initiative to open their home, but she is willing to do the work (cleaning, cooking, preparing the material) and enjoy fellowship, than do nothing and be alone. So am I.

While my mother-in-law was visiting and catching up with all the new things her grandchildren are learning,(our youngest child, Sofia, is 13 months already), I was able to find a bit of time to craft. I challenged myself to use the scraps and the cut out flowers I already have. The beautiful stamp is called Night Flower (Hero Arts). And I had a sheet of printed out Bible verses. As I missed having any meaningful new sentiments I thought I'd better use up the printed sheet of the Scriptures I already had on hand. The white embossed flower has two layers and is popped up for dimension. The little tag has been in my scraps for ages and I am so happy to find a cute little home for it. Almost all the cards were given to my mother-in-law to say "hello" to our relatives in Smolensk.

The sentiment in Russian says "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him..." (Romans 15:13). The colors work so beautifully together! The panel was made with distress inks and water, Large Blossom and Big Post Card (Hero Art).

Thank you for visiting! Have a great week-end!

Maria

Our move to St.Petersburg

2014-07-31T10:20:00.000+03:00

Dear friends,

It was a long break from the blog. Our family has moved to live and minister in St.Petersburg. The move went smoothly. I spent 3 weeks packing books and clothes into boxes, while my husband started working at a new office (he kept his Moscow job). Then we came to St. Petersburg for a 3 day Christian retreat and after that we moved into a new apartment. During the last 12 months we were preparing for the move, giving away things and saying good-bye to friends. I feel complete peace as I follow my husband's vision for our future. The Lord has impressed this verse in my mind:

"Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands" (Ephisians 5:22-24).

After a week in the new apartment, my husband left for Moscow to complete packing and arrange the truck and a few loaders. The kids like it here, it is a very green area of the city with a huge forest nearby. For a change I took them to an event at at a city park. There they enjoyed some snacks, an open library, bean bags and hummocks as well as a free photo session. This is an unexpected gift from a lady working for a publishing house that set up the library.

Sofia in the open space library and me in the background. Our little bookworm. Fiodor is warning another little girl that he is is his sister's protector. And his older brother Yegor is sticking out like paparazzi trying to get a good shot. Fiodor's hair is wet from jumping on the bean bags. Sophia loved the IKEA bookcase with all the colorful books. I love this portrait! What a fun day at the park!