SIMPLE THINGS JUNE *GRACIOUS*

Hello! It's time for Simple Things once again.

Here's Eleanor - The word graciousness is inextricably linked, in my mind, with hands.

Hands show love, and care. We gently soothe with our hands, we uplift and we console.

With our hands we greet, and bid farewell; we lovingly give and we gratefully receive.

Here are my own hands, they are not pretty hands, rather workworn, but I hope they are gracious.

They, and the title, are embroidered simply, and unembellished, for my quilt square this month.

 

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Hi Debbie here with my take on Graciousness. I found this quite difficult so looked in a dictionary and the meaning of graciousness was defined as kind gentle and generous. I found some quotes for each word and mounted them in painted slide mounts.

    

I layered ripped tissue paper to start making the background and layered torn shapes, if you start thinking of squares they will turn out really random. I painted gesso over to tone the colours down a little.

 

I added tissue paper butterflies and green 'flags' for the top and bottom of the page.

 

I cut some slide mounts using a sizzix die and painted them. I used letters cut from magazines for the words.

 

I then added extra detail with a black fine sharpie and a white tippex pen.

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Dolly here with another flower themed page for my Simple Things album.

 

 

As soon as I saw the word it reminded me of a colleague I worked with for a long time. She was a wonderful lady and a great inspiration and I remember, after a particularly trying time at work when i was very cross about soemthing she said that the most important thing was 'To live your life with grace and graciousness.'

I have never forgotten those words and she was a wonderful example of living her life based on that ideal. I have remembered them often when times have been very trying and have tried to emulate her.

It was therefore important to include those words on the page.

 

I have included definitions on my pages and here is the definition for this month.

In keeping witht he flower theme I chose a very delicate flower, appropriate for my friend. It is a picture of blossom in my garden this spring.

 

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Hiya Claire here with my take on this months word Graciousness, I also found this tricky but I do love a challenge, the dictionary definition I found was: having or showing kindness, courtesy & compassion.

I decided I would use a quote for this but after hours of random googling I was still struggling until I saw this snippet from a bible quote... Graciousness begins with a pure heart.

I'm still using the Fancy pants Whimsy paper & I stamped a border using a Banana Frog stamp, then cut a heart from chipboard, painted it red, then sprayed it with Lava Red Cosmic Shimmer Mist & inked the edges with Black Soot distress ink...

I coloured a cream slide frame & some smaller prima blooms with various shades of green & blue, Cosmic Shimmer & Glimmer mists, & added a chipboard piece that says Grace.

  Then I put it all together, the quote was stamped using Banana Frog Stamps & I used another Banana frog stamp for the hearts which I then doodled around with my black pen

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Hi, Mandy here,

Back at the beginning of the year when we began the ‘SIMPLE THINGS’ Project, I decided to make a fabric book and use it to try out new techniques  that I may not have done before.  I also wanted to re-cycle whenever possible.  Well this month I used the cotton print fabric & buttons from a skirt I used to wear about 15 years ago.  I was aiming to make my fabric page sort of like a scrapbook page, but with patterned fabric instead of patterned paper.   The fabric was really too floppy to work with so I used some iron-on interfacing to make it more manageable.  Here’s my page, using the word ‘Grace’...

 
I used messy-machine-stitching...

 
There’s  some hand-stitching too....

 

The crochet butterfly is my own design (pattern on my blog) and the row of yellow circles is crochet over metal washers.  Like all the previous months, I’ve used a quote and for GRACE I quoted one of my favourite Grace Ministers, Joseph Prince.

 

I can't believe I used to wear a skirt with that pattern (!)

Looking forward to next month,

Mandy

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Hi, Caz here!

When we started this project we collected the words. We all gave suggestions and made a list asigning each to a month. Graciousness was my suggestion. I have no idea where it came from and if I even knew what the word meant. It just came and I suggested.

So, roll on June and time to make my page. And there I sat, and sat, and sat some more. NOTHING came, absolutely nothing.

But it's funny how fate leads you down a path you didn't know you needed to be led down. And I am so thankful for this word and it's meaning.

 

I would usually have started this next paragraph with 'I'm not particularly religeous but......' For some reason I feel embarrased about admitting I am religious! I have no idea how or why, and I am certainly going to stop saying it after creating this page. I don't go to church every Sunday and I don't say Grace before my meals but I do believe in the Lord and I do try live my life by his example. I am learning to accept myself and who I am with each passing month of this project. And I love it!!

Thanks for visiting!!
Caz
xx 

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We admit the word this month was a toughie; try and join us next month,

it's ACHIEVEMENT.

Cheerio.

Comments

[jayne]

AMAZING AGAIN LADIES XXXXXX

[claireliz]

wow, they all look fabby :)
xx

[Lynne V.]

Wow!
Thanks for sharing so much inspiration.

[Carmen]

Gorgeous, gorgeous work ladies. Caz - I know what you mean. Not in the way you do - I'm not religious... well actually what I should say is I'm a 'don't know whether to believe or not' person. I believe there is the chance that ANYTHING could exist, UFO's, Nessie, Fairies...God. Someone told me I was agnostic once - I don't even know if that's true. What I mean is I am definitely with you in accepting myself, who I am and trying to stop apologising for it :)

Brilliant post!

[Cal]

Oh no! How did I miss this post :0( FAB work again ladies. Will put my Grace on my blog asap and catch up with Achievement at the weekend!