PRAYER

I am submitting this as my card for the C4C2 Challenge and for the Stampin Sisters in Christ DT Call.

Prayer, a necessity for every Christian. So many times in our lives we just don't know what to say or what to do to encourage and lift up another who is grieving, hurting, and facing such hurdles in their lives that seem insurmountable. We have the power of prayer and as the card says, it is often the only "gift " we can give another. And it should be the first thing we say or give them.

I chose to do Cindy Haffners sketch from Crazy4Challenges2 for my card. It is pretty simple looking but I learned sometimes simplicity is harder than covering everything with 15 layers , 6 embellishments and a huge bow.

My card has a white base, SU Chocolate Chip and Tempting Turquoise for the mats. The top squares are a turquoise print from My Minds Eye called Bohemia-Damask Teal. After cutting the squares and trying to layer them straight (my GRRR moment), I used Versa Mark to add an SU flourish from Baroque Motifs and glittered with Martha Stewarts turquoise glitter. The glitter looked great but as I turned each piece over to add the dot-runner adhesives, the glitter rubbed off on my paper towel. So I went to plan B and used a Paper Crafts Pin Point roller glue pen and drew all the flourishes over and glittered again and it stuck. Whew! The image is from Embossing Arts '93 "Sometimes prayer..." that I bought on ebay. I used the same SU Chocolate chip and Tempting Turquoise ink for matting the image. I used the SU ticket punch on the corners of the image and added flat Color Box turquoise metal dots to the cut-outs on the corners. I used a sheer white ribbon from Wal-Mart and tied a bow. I used pop dots to raise the center square up over the ribbon.

One of the surprises of this card is that the four squares being separated a little from each other created the shape of a cross : ) and that made me very happy. After all, we are to be a witness in all we do, and say, and think. We are citizens of another kingdom and our Heavenly Fathers children. What a wonderful family we belong to and we need to share His love in every way we can. Prayer Works!

SYMPATHY

I was so excited to see the Crazy 4 Challenges group started. Since I had to visit my 88 year old mom in TX the first 10 days of Sept, I was unable to participate in the challenge right away. But I am trying to catch up and now have a Sympathy card for the C4C1.

My base card is white, and I used a My Mind's Eye print from their Simply Delightful pad for the background and matted in peach. I cut a stip of the peach to go horizontally and used the Martha Stewart Lattice Arch punch on both horizontal edges to make my own "lace". I then added a 1/4" brown ribbon with a bow using Wal-Mart ribbon that has loops along both edges.

The circles were harder for me to accomplish. We divide our time between our home in MN and a condo in Oshkosh, WI where our son, his wife and two grand daughters live. I am not able to bring ALL of my stamping equipment back and forth every other month. So I try to bring the basics and a few punches, inks, etc to get by for a month. I have nice big punches but did not bring anything "round" this trip. SOOO, being the creative person I am and "Necessity being the mother of invention", I went to my pantry and pulled out three cans, matching them up so that there was about a 3/8th" border between each. The small tomato sauce can, the condensed milk can, and the tuna can worked! I used the sharp blade of my little scissors and scored the card stock of each using the cans as templates. They almost could be punched out but I did have to cut them out a little. I am describing all this to say that you can get by with out fancy tools and machines that do everything but make dinner. It just requires a little ingenuity. I used chocolate chip and peach to mat the white center and stamped with Momento black my sympathy message from Paper Inspirations 2005.

I also cut out some of the little flowers from the DP and added some jewels for the centers. Inside I stamped "May the comfort of God's love fill you with hope and peace" from Stampabilities.

I hope you enjoy my card. I have only done one other challenge and am new to it. Come along and join in and make new friends. It is FUN!

COLOR THROW DOWN

Well, I have decided to enter a card in a contest. I've never done it before and my style is certainly not as complicated as most mainly because I don't have all the stuff some of the card makers have and use. But I thought I would try.

The throw down required the colors Bermuda Bay, Green Galore, and Barely Banana. I didn't have the exact colors but made do with what I had that was similar. My green was a shade lighter, so I took my Green Galore SU marker and just colored the edge that showed. : ) We also were required to use a frog and I only had one and it has hearts on its body...a real Valentine frog if I ever saw one! I searched and searched through my paper and CS and couldn't find anything but florals with those colors. Very frustrating, because I feel like I have lots of paper and CS and still NOT the right look. : ( Is this a common experience for others?

I decided to make the card itself out of the Barely Banana color and layered the Green Galore with the Bermuda Bay on top. I had a dotted paper with different colored dots that are glittered. I put that on top and SU scalloped the bottom edge short and it made it look like blue water on the bottom. I don't have a machine designated for sewing paper, so just "drew "stitches around the edges on the green only. The dotted paper is from Doodlebug Design, Inc.

I found a Darcie's saying" Love Hits The Spot" and stamped it on the barely-banana-look-alike CS in black Momento ink. I matted the heart first in green and then in the blue and popped it up on the dotted CS. I tied a turquoise ribbon from Wal-Mart that is striped sheer and satin. I put the bow near the point of the heart to draw the eye there. I drew my own lily pad and added a little Green Galore shading. I ruffled the edges to give it dimension but stuck it down fairly flat with the red double-sided tape. The frog is a Judith stamp H-95 that I bought off of ebay. I stamped it on the barely banana CS and colored with SU green galore marker and pixie pink hearts and a yo-yo yellow tummy. I covered the frog with Crystal Effects but found that it curled a little because I had cut it out first. When I tried to flatten it , it cracked a little. So I stuck it down with pop dots and added more of the Crystal Effects to cover the cracks, and it did. I also discovered a little stain of something near the bottom right corner, so I added the three homemade hearts that are glittered with Stickles. Necessity is the mother of invention they say!

So that is my offering. I came down with a virus and so won't swear to any of the above information, but I think it is all correct. Hope you like my first humble offering.

I am thinking my card is simple compared to some, but I realize that since it is only 4 1/4 x 5 1/2", I may be limiting the "canvas" I am working on. I don't know the size of the cards most gals make, so if any one will share their nuggets of wisdom with me, I would appreciate it.

ENCOURAGEMENT

We all need some encouragement from time to time to get us over the rough spots in our lives. I had not thought of myself as being "gifted" as an encourager, but I do have a "don't give up" attitude which I guess you can say falls on the positive side of attributes.

My friend Emiline fell out of her bath tub and was in such pain and they couldn't find the problem. Xrays didn't show anything but after 3 weeks and not being able to put weight on her left leg, they finally did an MRI and found two fractures to her pelvis.

I felt she needed some encouragement and so made this card for her. I also made a duplicate for my Mom because I thought it would make her smile and lift her spirits too. She is 88 yrs young and going through grief over the loss of her husband.

So I guess I am an encourager sometimes. We all need to practice lifting each other up in spirit, and in prayer to the Lord. So no matter the circumstances, there is a bright side to everything. We have to search for what God is trying to teach us or show us about ourselves.

For those who make cards. the baby orangutan image is PSX E-1160 from 1999, the sentiment is The Cottage Stamper, H 672. The corner punch is a Marvy scalloped corner used on the white, and the CS colors are black, white, solid green and a small leaf patterned single sheet paper purchase from Hobby Lobby. I used off-white cotton yarn for the knotted string. Inside is the sentiment "Just to let you know you're in my thoughts today" by Hero Arts 2004.

LOOSING GROUND

I just returned to Oshkosh after spending 9 days with my Mother. We were able to accomplish a few things that needed to be done (wills, POA, etc) and had some good meals. I made some fish tacos and they were good made from tilapia that I seasoned, and sprinkled with lemon juice and olive oil. I added some green onion, red sweet peppers, and mushrooms on top. I layered the fish in chunks in those new "stand-up" taco shells, the cooked veggies, some thinly sliced cabbage that I mixed with some shredded Romaine. I made a tomato/cucumber salad by dicing the two in 3/8th-1/2 inch dice, mixed with lemon juice and olive oil, thyme, salt and pepper, and the lovely Feta cheese and used this as a fresh salsa. It may all sound different but they tasted really good so I will do it again. And with the fish and all the veggies, not high on calories and fat content and that is a good thing. : )

The photo is of the Moon Flower my mom had blooming. Even in the drought she has a few plants that have made it. It rained off and on for several days the day I left. So that should help her yard. We also were able to visit my sister, Gloria in Corpus Christi. Hadn't seen her since the funeral last year. We also visited my step fathers gravesite so mom could have more closure. Gloria's care giver took the photo of us and wouldn't get close enough to make it a better photo. Gloria was in her wheel chair and I was trying to scrunch down to be in the picture.

On the way home as the plane was climbing out after taking off from San Antonio, there was a loud crack and we were either hit by lightening or it was VERY close. (Pilot hubby said if you can hear it, it IS close!) I jumped and yelped. Can't help but react after our rock in the RV windshield incident in Idaho, and the RV flat that took out the wheel well under my seat when a beer truck in TX tried to run us off the road and we picked up a nail or something. I am a jumpy person anyways to loud unexpected noises. : )

My title is Loosing Ground and the reason I was thinking about that subject is how we are not always aware of our limitations as we get older. We THINK about doing some activity. and assume we still can do it. But when we actually try, either we can't accomplish it, or if we get it done, it takes a physical toll on our muscles and bodies and it takes a while (sometimes a LONG while) to recover. For example...Going to see my mom, I had a smallish rolling bag, and I took a sport bag about 24" long and rested it on top of the other with the handles of the sport bag hooked over the hard handle of the rolling one. Now that doesn't sound like too much for a 67 year old to handle, does it?

But in the actual process, the bags have to be separated and lifted to be put into the van for the trip to the airport, then hefted out and put together to go into the airport, then separated and lifted to put on the security conveyor belt, then lifted off and put back together for the walk down to the gate, then separated in the gateway and the rolling bag put on the cart so that it can go underneath and the sport bag carried and put up into the storage bin above the seats. Then when I arrived at my first destination, I had to get my sport bag down, lift my rolling bag from the container in the gateway and put the sport bag on top and lift the handles over the other handle and walk to another gate where I had a second section of the trip to accomplish, and had to separate them once again for gate/side checking, do the carrying and storing in the plane and then collect them again once I had arrived at my final destination. That was on Sept 1. AND for the trip home, I had to repeat the whole process all over again! : ( That was my day Thursday.

So by Sunday, I was having pain in my right shoulder and shooting down my bicep towards my elbow and a slight pain in the left shoulder. The only thing I can figure out is that all that lifting and hefting and such strained my shoulder and muscles!!! And it never has before. I also have two bruises...one on my right forearm and one on my left shoulder. I put ice on both my shoulders off and on for about an hour last night and they are better today. So I guess I will need to hire a companion to accompany me on my trips (He better be good lookin'! I wonder if he can be a masseuse too? That would be helpful. : ) Just kidding! LOL Or maybe I will just have a set of clothes at mom's and then I don't have to haul anything much. Oh goody! I get to go shopping!