Merry Christmas (freebie word art set, too)

I did come back with more...finally! Hope you can enjoy using these. I made them based on what our family Christmases have always been like.

Merry Christmas to you all!!

Melanie

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Christmas freebies

ACK!!!!


I knew it had been awhile since I posted anything, but I had no idea it was THIS long. Busy, busy, sick, busy, busy, yada-yada-yada, blah-blah, and a pear tree without a partridge. Those are my excuses.


Hope you can use today's word art set. There will likely be more over the weekend, so stop by and check in with me. :)




In the meantime, hope you are not getting so caught up in the must-dos and wanna-dos of the pre-Christmas rush that you forget to take time to remember why we celebrate...our dear Savior's birth.


Blessings,
Melanie

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Mistletoe Moment freebie

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Christmas WA freebie

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Christmas Is More...freebie

A few weeks ago, the lovely Kate sent me another layout she'd done. This morning, while working on unfinished business from the past several weeks, I realized I had not posted it to show you how she used my word art. And--as it so often happens--re-reading her note to me this morning was exactly what I needed to hear. Thank you, Kate, for your gracious comment!

Melanie, Just for you, I hope you like it. Your word art makes all the
difference to a layout – gives it meaning. Love Kate

And here is her layout:

Today's gift word art is another way to share my beliefs about what Christmas really means. I used the phrase in a layout I prepared using KimB's Christmas First kit. Hope you can use the word art, too.

Blessings on this lovely day,

Melanie
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Chill out freebie

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Recycled Freebie

DESIGNER SPOTLIGHT: Wetfish Designs
Please take time to visit Cyndi's blog this week. Her December 1st posting is an inspiring writing of a fresh start she is making in how she views her life. You'll also find freebies in her December 2nd posting, with a reminder that Divine Digital has a terrific kit which you can collect through the Download-a-Day in its forum. It's called Holiday Madness. The preview below is just a small part of this cheery kit. Cyndi always adds more on her blog when it's her turn to provide the daily download gift.

As I work on word art to commemorate this oh-so-special time of year, I was reminded of a word art I made last year. I call it Christmas Means..., and it still summarizes my thoughts about this meaningful season. So I'm posting it again in case some of you new to my blog may have missed it.

blessings on your day,
Melanie
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December 1st freebie

Whew.

The last of my company left Sunday afternoon. We had a good visit with everyone, and as much as I love my family, it's always nice to have our house back to ourselves. I took yesterday "off" and did very little except for a bit more cleanup, and prepared a few random leftovers for dinner for my husband and me.

This morning, I'm still feeling as sluggish as 4Shared is acting...so I apologize in advance if you have any download issues with today's freebie.

I'll talk to you later, 'k?

Melanie

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Retrieve!!

Hello, all...hope this October day brings you joy. I had a fun weekend with an unexpected visit from my oldest niece and her family. Her three sons are great and we enjoyed watching them relish playing in the PERFECT weather we had all weekend. [Rainy this morning, after a stormy night, but the weather was perfect when we needed it!]

As boys do, they played all sorts of games; but in one particular game that involved a battle of sorts with foam swords, the oldest one (age 8), yelled to his "troops"....Retrieve! Retrieve! Retrieve!

We couldn't help but laugh at his version of the battle cry, "Retreat!" :) We never did correct him because, to be honest, we were impressed that he even knew the word retrieve. Don't you just love the way shared laughter makes you feel? :)

The lovely Kate sent me three recent terrific layouts she had done, using my word art. Thank you so much, Kate, for sharing these with us! Her daughter is newly pregnant and she wanted to commemorate the glowing lovely that she is.

I'm celebrating this favorite time of year myself with the addition of two new alphabets to my Divine Digital store. Click on the preview images below to take you to my shop...

AUTUMN ART ALPHABET:

And CHRISTMAS GREEN ALPHABET:

Hey, this just occurred to me...here's a thought for an advertisement slogan for my still-new store: RETRIEVE! RETRIEVE! RETRIEVE! [laughing by myself at my computer] Hope you like the new alphabets, at least enough to stop by the store and take a look. One of the word art sets I started with has been reduced to 20% off, so check it out, please! "Retrieving" them may just be the perfect thing you need for your layouts. :) A shameless plug, I know.

Hope your week begins well...I'll be back soon with another freebie!

Blessings,

Melanie

CHRISTMAS SPIRIT

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Christmas is ...

hope you are able to enjoy the holiday season to the fullest by now. it's so special when you can take time for yourself and your family to remember the WHY of the season. i wanted today's word art to help reflect those thoughts as well.

thank you for all your kind words, well wishes, thoughts and prayers. my surgery went better than the surgeon expected, even after he discovered that two other broken bones were hiding behind the 6 broken ones he'd seen on x-rays. everything is fragile still, but not my spirit. still experiencing pain, and this only left-handed usage is seriously frustrating; however, i'm keenly aware that this is nothing compared to what so many others are experiencing...... what some of YOU are experiencing.

blessings on your day,
melanie

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A Baby Changes Everything

Thank you for the terrific comments you've left for yesterday's Christmas tree word art. That meant a lot to hear, especially from people of faith. Some of you asked for more of the same, so today's word art also reflects our Savior's birth. It's taken from the new song by recording artist Faith Hill on her Christmas album. I've put a link to her music video if you're interested in hearing this beautiful, meaningful song.


MUSIC VIDEO




And it's not to late to get Faithful Seasons 1 and 2 Christmas music overlays. Your donation of $2.00 for each set would be most appreciated.





Happy Thursday!
Melanie

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What Christmas Means to Me

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Random

I was so pleased to discover a layout in my e-mail at home last night, in which Suzanne sent me a layout she'd prepared using the DEAR SANTA word art from yesterday. What a cutie!!! And I'm NOT talking about Santa. :) Thanks so much, Suzanne.

I was also delighted to have a message from Arianna, in which she told me how much she really liked the Faithful Seasons 1 and 2 packs which she had ordered. In fact, she said that she was singing those carols all day, and said "it was worth every penny." Thank you SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much, Arianna for the endorsement. For those of you who are still considering it, please do order them -- I would greatly appreciate it. $2.00 each is the requested pricing.

For those of you who only stop by for the freebies, you have 3 today -- they're totally random and not Christmas-y. Hope you find them useful!

Blessings,

Melanie

DOWNLOAD Scrapbook

DOWNLOAD Love You More

DOWNLOAD Vow of Silence

Love in Action

I can't believe I'm already asking this, but how was your weekend? I have NO idea where it went. I think time is going so quickly because -- for one thing -- my assistant is out. Her daughter was in a serious car accident during the Thanksgiving holidays and I've been preoccupied with that, and trying to be as supportive and as encouraging to my assistant as possible. There was a fatality in the accident (her daughter's friend), and such sobering reminders of the fragility of life just blow you away some times.

As crazy as it may sound, being able to do things like this blog online, and particularly to read other blogs, help me personally keep grounded during such trials. And if I'm grounded, then I can help others as well. The daughter is home from the hospital now and slowly recovering. She has no idea how long her healing of body, spirit, mind will take ... and how close she came to losing her own life. This has been a wonderful opportunity for her mother to tell her that God isn't through with her yet, and that He has something in mind yet for her to do.

It shouldn't take tragedies and near-misses to get us to that point of being open to God's leading, but in our stubborn human selves, we think we can do it on our own. God's love in action makes certain that we are not alone, if we but ask.

Not coincidentally, I received in my e-mail over the weekend this sweet, meaningful layout from Sonel. As you can see, she used word art that I had shared some time ago ... it uses a phrase in a Rascall Flatts song. That was the theme of my sister's wedding ceremony to her high school sweetheart two years ago today. Thank you, Sonel, for sharing this lovely layout with us all. By the way, you should check out Sonel's blog -- she has some very cheerful word art on it and other things you'll enjoy.

Here's a reminder, too, about the Christmas music lyric overlays featured in my Faithful Season 1 and Faithful Season 2 packs. You can order them individually (for a suggested donation of $2 each) or together for a requested gift of $3.00. I greatly appreciate your consideration in this. Look at last Friday's post for more information about these word art overlays.

I'm sharing two new freebie word art pieces today for your Christmas collection. I would be delighted to see how you use them!!!

This quote is attributed to Dale Evans:

Thanks for stopping by!

Blessings to you and yours today,

Melanie

DOWNLOAD Dear Santa

DOWNLOAD Love in Action

Faithful Season 2 Children's Carols

As I mentioned last week, I am posting another set of Christmas music lyrics -- these are specifically geared toward children (Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth, Toyland, The Chipmunk Song, Frosty the Snowman, etc.) It's called Faithful Season 2, and consists of overlays for TEN songs.

If you would like to order this set of TEN lyrics in word art, please click on the DONATE button on the far right of the screen. A donation of $2.00 would be greatly appreciated. If you would like to order both sets (Faithful Season Sets 1 and 2), please consider a donation of $3.00, and specify that in your request. Please let me know which set you are ordering.

BY THE WAY, if you ordered Faithful Season 1 last week, I'm sending you this set as a thank-you gift. Hope you consider that a nice surprise!

Many thanks,

Melanie

Rock with Christmas, Dood!

We were fortunate to have my niece and her family visiting us this past weekend. Her three little boys can be rowdy, but oh-so-fun most of the time. At one point during the visit when they had to come indoors because of the rain, I pulled out the snowman notepaper I had saved for them, along with some felt-tip markers. Simultaneously, they all began drawing and writing notes for us grownups. How sweet!

Caleb, the oldest one at age 7, made me smile when he handed my husband one, where he had written a phrase I'd never heard before (and I'm guessing he just made it up): "Rock with Christmas" -- this note is now displayed on our refrigerator. But I had to laugh when he prepared one for his dad that said, "Rock with Christmas, Dood!"

So, you have Caleb to thank for inspiring today's word art. Both of these are in a single zip file. PLEASE SHOW ME YOUR LAYOUTS IF YOU USE THEM!!! I'd love to share them with Caleb when I see him on Christmas Day.

I'll be back later today with more.

Enjoy your day!

Melanie

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Some of the Best Gifts

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Can you tell I'm in a Christmas mood?

Just a reminder that there are only a few more days in which the FAITHFUL SEASON 1 traditional Christmas lyrics art will be available to order through a donation. Your patronage would be most appreciated.

Blessings to you and yours,

Melanie

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December at Home kit

Here's my entry for the December Color Challenge, hosted by the fabulous KimB at DSO.

Hope you can use it.

Blessings,

Melanie

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