BARE TREES

There is something about the fall and bare trees. They look so strong and majestic without their leaves. I guess they have to be to make it through the tough winter. They raise their limbs up to heaven in awe of the Creator. They are grounded by a root system that sustains them in all kinds of circumstances, that nourishes them all year long and provides what they need to grow and thrive. And they give us shelter (wood for our homes). shade from the sun, and a special beauty all year long with their many shades of green foliage for spring and summer, brilliant hues for autumn, and their bare limbs for winter. Oh how I love the seasons and bare trees as part of it all.

My card is made using a bare tree background stamp I have had for some time. I believe it was from Cornish Heritage Farms. I colored a piece of white card stock using my Stampin Up markers in red, golden yellow, orange, peach, bright yellow, and pale yellow. I blended them with each other as I added the rows of horizontal colors. Then the bare trees were stamped with Momento Tuxedo Black ink. I trimmed this and matted in an orange from Basic Grey, a shiny yellow CS and a black. I used tiny sheer ribbon in red, orange and black to tie around the trees and instead of a fussy bow, I just knotted it and let the 6 ends be my "fluff". It is a bit more subtle that way. I chose a saying from Coleridge "Friendship is like a sheltering tree" and matted it the same. I know, I know...there are no leaves on the trees, but they carry with them the promise of shelter and the sky background is full of bright colors and hope for a new day. Thanks for stopping by.

MY WINTER WONDERLAND

Welcome to my Winter Wonderland! It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas and it is only Nov 13th when these photos were taken by our daughter who is visiting from TN for a long weekend. She has a knack for capturing special views in my opinion and I wanted to share some of her photos with you. This is the view from our front door. The house light was off but the flash made the snowflakes look like stars that had come down. I love it.





The second photo is of the front of our house from across the street. We used to have another tree in the middle of the front yard, but it blocked out the sun and was killing the grass. So we had it taken out. These pictures all were taken about 7:30am and with the recent time change, it was still dark. Of course the sun never came out since it snowed all day and we had over 7 inches.







The third picture is of our beautiful Colorado Blue Spruce in the front. It was only a 5 ft tree 23 years ago and now is as tall as the 2 story house almost. It is planted near a sprinkler head and gets a good "drink" in the summer and that might be why it has grown so well. We used to put Christmas lights on it when we could reach, but now we just enjoy its pristine beauty as God made it. The flash sure lit up those snowflakes again. Wish I could capture that look on a card. Hmmm! Have to think about that one.



Lastly is a photo of our backyard from the decking one story off the ground, We have about 8 mature oaks that are 60-70ft tall and a few Colorado Blue Spruce trees I have planted through the years. They have always been my favorite tree and I love MN/WI because of all the tall, beautiful deciduous and ever green trees in both states.

We have about 1/3rd of an acre and these trees continue to add their beauty to our home, even in winter. Thanks for stopping by to see my Winter Wonderland.

TRIP TO TEXAS

I recently was able to go back down to Texas to visit with my mother when she needed to go in the hospital for her pacemaker "generator" change. I arrived 2 days before afraid that since I fly stand by, I might not get there exactly when I wanted. But all went well, and we were able to get some pre op tests out of the way on Weds. Thursday we arrived at 11:30am, and the procedure had been scheduled for 1:30 but they got behind and it was 2:15 before they did it. All went well and mom was in recovery about 4pm. They let her rest, fed her some light foods since she had not had anything since 5am and we were home about 6pm. She is a pretty good looking 89 yr old lady, I think.

She had to leave her bandage on for 4 days and then could remove it the 5th day. Boy, they used some good sticky tape because it really pealed some of her skin off. But she is all set for another 20 years.

My nephew John and his wife from Little Rock came by and surprised Mom and me on Tuesday. John was able to bring my sister, Gloria, back up on Thursday for a good 4 hr visit. They had to drive 2 1/2 hrs to get there. We had a nice Barbequed brisket dinner and played Glorias favorite game, Skipbo and my taxi arrived at 4pm to take me to the airport. On their way home through San Antonio, a dump truck had lost its load of gravel on the highway, and they were stuck in traffic an extra two hours. This would be very frustrating to all of us but was particularly difficult for them. My sister is in a wheel chair and it had already been a long day for her.

Here are a few photos...one of mom and one of my sister and of course one of John and his wife Cindy, whom I had not seen for several years. I am very thankful John took the time and effort to bring us all together for a little mini reunion. I had not seen my sister in a year. She is 2 years younger than me and suffered a couple of mini strokes in the last 6 months. She also had been in a car accident and suffered through so much from that. I admire her spirit and her determination through it all. Her belief in Jesus has remained strong. All the women in my family ROCK! May I grow up to be as strong and resilient as they are. Thanks for stopping by.

EARPHONE AUDITION

Is Matti auditioning for a job at the radio station? Nooo. She is wearing earphones to listen to the Disney movie while her grandpa reads his book. She thought it was pretty cool being able to hear it and no one else could. We have a wireless head set and use it when one is sleeping and the other wants to watch TV. Bill has hearing aids and using these allows him to hear at the level he needs and not blast me out of the room. My hearing is still good, thank goodness.

The girls worked on a couple of cards while visiting me. They make a card just about every time they come over. The mummy card they did collectively for their "mummy". They each colored their mummy, cut it out and put it on the purple background. The grass is a Martha Stewart punch and the pumpkins are stickers...well, they are little girls and love stickers too.

Emma helped with the spider web in the corner and inside it says "We love you mummy". Too cute!



The last card is from Matti. She really loves hearts and stamped the small heart w/ bow four times. She colored them all the way she wanted and cut them out herself. Please note, they are not alike which adds so much to the charm of the card. I did mat them for her with the green which she picked out and she punched the heart border using a Martha Stewart punch which she picked out. I think part of the fun for them is picking out what to stamp, what to punch, what to color, etc. Isn't that what is fun for us too? The process is the same no matter how young or old we get. Creating on paper is just FUN! Thanks for stopping by and letting me share my grand daughters with you. They are "grand".

KINDERGARTEN GIRL

Here is a photo of Emma getting off the bus after school. We occasionally have the privilege of being there when she gets home. We make an after school snack with graham crackers or vanilla wafers and frosting or something interesting to her. Sometimes we get to pick up Matti from daycare and make treats with her too. No matter what we do, we seem to have a good time together. Thanks for stopping by.

MAMAW"S CRAFT TABLE

There is something very special going on in the half front bedroom I call my Craft Area. When my two grand daughters come over to visit, they are drawn to the table and want to stamp and make a card. They are fascinated by the punches, markers, adhesives, stamps etc, and want to use different embellishments. Emma is in the yellow colored shirt and Matti is in the pink shirt...and both are very preoccupied with the task they are doing.






This thrills me to be able to share my craft with them. I hope their interest in art will last their whole life and that they will enjoy the process of creating art, cards, whatever from inside themselves. I just love these girls and they give me many hours of smiles and happiness. Thank you Emma and Matti for being the sweet girls you are.

TEACHING MATTI

Matti saw the card I made for Krissia's BD and the lined envelope I made for the card. She wanted to make a card and line the envelope too. So we went with this simple snowflake paper, punched the corners, some punched Martha Stewart snowflakes which she loves to punch, and the sentiment which I wrote by hand in a blue to match the card front. I cut the paper for the envelope lining and she added the tape runner and tried to stick it inside. It kept sticking in the wrong place and I had to help her line it up properly. She is 4 1/2 years old, and was a good learning experience for her and she has to start somewhere. The next time she will be a little older and more able. Thank you for coming by.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KRISSIA

This is the card I made for our exchange student/daughter in Costa Rica. She is so special to us and I know these last few weeks have been difficult for her. Her FIL is dealing with a terminal illness. Our prayers are with him and the whole family. I thought my card might give her a few moments of happiness.

My card has a shortened front width-wise and is folded back on itself. I added a floral panel over the front which is matted in lavender. I added the Cuttlebug cut circle with the heart stamped in Momento ink and colored with Stampin Up markers. The floral corners were also in the set of clear stamps as was the saying. I added the ribbon under the circle before adhering it. I was not sure of how to do the tie coming from the back. I decided to cover the back of the front circle and cut it to meet the fold line, and used the left over piece to cover the ribbon attachment point on the back. Here is a picture of the inside of the card showing the use of the small floral print. It worked out. Thanks for stopping by.

MISSED ONE

I made a BD card in Aug for my friend Emiline in Del City, OK but I failed to post it on my blog. Here I am trying to catch up. Emiline met me while wintering in Green Gate Grove retirement park years ago and she is so funny and makes me laugh. So I thought to make her a BD card to make her laugh. I used the Penny Black image of four chickens...one with a card, one with a bouquet, one with a BD cake , and the last with a present. It is stamped with Momento Tuxedo black, colored with Stampin Up markers and a Copic soft gray for shadows on the chickens. The bottom corners are rounded on all matting, DSP and image. I matted in red and purple and the BD candle DSP which has very bright primary colors was where I got my inspiration. I tied a sweet purple ribbon and a popped up sentiment "It's your day" which was matted with the same red and purple and with rounded corners.

Inside I stamped in Momento Tuxedo black the funny saying and added a little "spring chicken". She loved it and said all my cards are special because they are home made. Thanks for coming by.

FRIENDSHIPS

My card today is a D. Morgan image. I learned about D. Morgan from my DIL whose family came from TN and she has several framed D. Morgan prints on the walls in their home. They are just lovely and when I see all the wonderful stamp images made from D. Morgan, I really get happy. Love them all!
This one says "In my garden of memories...you are the dearest flower." The flowers are so sweet and fun to color. I think they are hollyhocks.

I followed the coloration as best I could from the stamp top. I used a blue from Stampin Up and stamped the whole image on it in Momento Tuxedo black ink. I notched the corners with my little Marvy punch, and matted with hot pink.

I then stamped it again on white, colored the flowers, splattered the white framed section by making tiny little blue and pink dots placed randomly. I distressed the frame edges, and added some Copic shadows in a very pale pink. I cut the flower/frame section out, tied on the pink dotted sheer ribbon and pop dotted the panel onto the blue section. I added a little Stickles to the flower centers for a little sparkle. I could have added more embellies, but honestly felt it would detract from this beautiful image. This is the kind of card you send to a really sweet friend. We need to tell our friends how much they mean to us and often. We never know when we might not get the opportunity again. Life can change in a moment and someone who means a lot to us can be gone forever. Carlene...this one's for you! I appreciate all you and your husband did for me as a teenager years ago. I am sorry I did not tell you enough before your passing but know you are looking down on me still.
Thanks for stopping by....

Creative Stamp Friends (Kreative Stempelfreinde) #11- Favorite stamps
A Spoonful of Sugar-Embellishments (Stickles and ribbon)
ABC Challenge-Glitter

AUTUMN COLORS

I wanted to make another Autumn colored card. I missed our leaves turning since I was traveling and spent a week + in TX with my mom. I am so Thankful to live in a place that has all the seasons. Each has a beauty all its own and Autumn is spectacular in Minnesota/Wisconsin. And I am Thankful to GOD for the beauty He has created. All Thankfulness begins with knowing GOD and who He is and appreciating what He has done for us and continues to do every day. GOD IS LOVE!

This card started with a leaf print paper which I cut around the leaves to "leave" a window to allow my textured Kraft card stock to show through. I used the Distressed stripes folder for the texture. I love that folder because the stripes can blend with so many types of papers and themes. I used a Bazzill linen card stock at the top in a chili pepper red, matted with a smooth chili pepper red and Kraft CS and distressed the edges before I adhered the layers. I stamped the saying in Versa Mark and heat embossed it on an orange card stock. I cut it out with the Cuttlebug Nestie and matted the second one in SU cranberry crisp, but turned it . I used Stickles on the one leaf and the bottom paper was a little uneven, so I added a "stitch line" of Stickles to draw the eye away from the irregular edge. : ) We crafty crafters need to be able to fix things some times. (Have you ever had to cover something up with a bow, or turned over the first stamping job because you bobbled it a bit, etc...? "Necessity IS the mother of invention" they say! LOL) Thanks for stopping by.

Sew Many Challenges-FALL
ABC Challenge-Glitter
Our Creative Corner-Attitude of Grattitude

SUNFLOWERS ONCE MORE

My last card I made before going back to MN is another sunflower card. This one fits in a business sized envelope. My poor sunflowers by the deck are hanging their heavy heads and the squirrels are eating the seeds out and scattering them for next years sunflower crop. : ) I made this last sunflower card in honor of those flowers and remembering their beauty.
This card is an unusual shape on top. It is a bifold card, slightly elongated to accommodate the longer image and my little gifty inside...a bookmark. I colored the image (a couple of sunflowers and one having a lady bug on the center) with Stampin Up markers and used my Cuttlebug to cut out the shape with a die. I trimmed the top of the card to make the edge follow the top of the die shape and to create some interest. I matted it first in dark green and then used the two different greens to make two panels behind the image. I tied on some golden yellow ribbon before sticking it all down. The image is pop dotted up.


When the front is opened, it opens to the second folded surface. I added more dark green as a scalloped mat around the oval sentiment "Happy, happy, happy Birthday!" which was cut with the Cuttlebug. I added a vertical of brown and white check on top of the med green, trimming the tops by hand to follow the unusual shape. I had a really tiny lady bug stamp and stamped one off on a separate piece of white, colored it, cut it out and popped it up on this side with a dashed line to make it look like it is flying. I loved doing this. You may need to enlarge the picture to see my dashes.



When this side is opened, I have placed a coordinating book mark inside with a vertical sunflower image and golden yellow ribbon tied on. I also added some stamped lady bugs on the sides to bring it all together. I think I need to add something around the edges of the book mark or mat it behind with the dark green. or at least edge it with some green ink to make it show better. To hold the book mark in place, I put a strip of the brown/white check which is matted with green and if you look closely, you can see where I stamped "Love You" on the brown/white check. It is hard to see and I may need to do something to make it show better...like embossing it in black or something. Thanks for stopping by.

Party Time Tuesday #19-Birthday
TSG79 Here she goes getting "gifty"