After sketching the desired image for Lovey Dovey in my sketchbook, I re-drew my line work onto the watercolor paper. This picture shows the watercolor/embroidery process at stage 2. You can see the sketch lines on the Arches paper and the palette is mixed and ready to go. The color is washed on to the paper in steps until the desired depths and forms are developed. Stage 3 is embroidering the art and the final step is to scan and edit the finished piece so it is ready in a digital format for reproduction.

I want to share with you a VERY special family tradition that has become the most meaningful part of gift-giving at Christmas.

Each fall, Operation Christmas Child (lead by Billy Graham’s son, Franklin Graham) organizes the coolest way for ordinary people to do something extraordinary in the life of a little child in a far away country. They send out palettes of shoe boxes, packed with love and donated by caring people, and give them to needy children all over the world.

The children who are lucky enough to get a shoebox filled to the brim with toys and art supplies and necessities have been very unlucky in life. They distribute shoe boxes to children that live in poverty (like the dumps of Guatemala), sites of natural disasters (like Katrina and Indonesia), war torn villages (like Sudan) and hurting communities in the the farthest reaches of the world . . . they have even been to Timbuktu!

A simple gift such as a shoebox filled with special gifts from you will be the only gift a child might receive for Christmas this year. In fact, it might be the first gift they have ever received in their lives! And it is such a simple hands on way to help out a hurting community and a little child you could have never otherwise touched.

Things that are common place and quickly overlooked by most American children are treasured for life by children in other countries. It is a great way to get our kids, nieces, nephews, and little cousins involved too and teach them the meaning of helping others.

• See the difference a shoe box can make (video)

• How to pack a shoe box
  

I would love to share this joy with you! I PROMISE, you will never have this much fun shopping and wrapping a gift in your life!

Something to Cherish™ a division of Cherished Solutions, llc, will be débuting a fresh new look for the scrapbooking and crafting markets.

Taking hand crafted line, whimsical watercolor brush strokes and other lines of stitches and textured background, artist Cherish Flieder has created a look all her own.

Artist/licensor Cherish Flieder celebrates birthday, baby and
Christmas with colorful, nostalgic, hand-sewn accents.

New paintings & designs will be available for licensing February 2008. Visit the “Something to Cherish” Art & Design booth at CHA Winter Show 2008 in Anaheim for a full portfolio showing.