ANOTHER PIECE IS GONE

Hello out there in blogland. Martha is getting smaller/thinner/ tinier by the surgery. YEP! Another piece of me old bod is gone for good. I had my gallbladder out this past Tuesday and have been trying to figure out what I can eat successfully the last three days. They say if you eat too much or too fat of foods too soon, it will not digest properly and zip right on through the system. AND I do not want that for sure!

I did not get a picture of my GB to share...I was busy sleeping. LOL! I will go to the doctor in another week and find out how it all went down and what they learned from it. I do know I had gall stones and that was what was causing my pain and discomfort.

So goodbye to another piece of me. I tell people that "God is taking me home one piece at-a-time! Thanks for stopping by.

MINTY...

Some may remember seeing the movie Beverly Hills Chihuahua. Remember the scene where the dogs after being taken to the hotel after running all over Mexico, and were given baths and teeth brushing...one of the strays smiles and his teeth sparkle and he says, "Minty"! That scene cracks us up every time.

Well, yesterday we took Jack to the vet to get his teeth cleaned...and I imagine he says "minty" every time I look at him now. I would take a picture of his clean teeth for you if he would let me. He was awfully wobbly last night and the two girl cats had thought he was gone for good and welcomed him with lots of hissing and growls. I imagined they said "Oh no, he's back"! He does give them a few running chases around the house. Mari hisses at him and growls but Luci seems to like to run too and will tolerate him a little before she stops and hisses.

After paying the vet bill for the cleaning, even Bill and I were hissing and growling. Hope we do not need to do it often.

A SWEET FRIEND

We have all heard the sayings, quotes and such about what good friends are. Some know our thoughts before we think them, some "walk in the door when others are walking out", and others hear and know our heart "song" when we can not speak and they do not judge us but accept. Some are just passing through and then they move on.

Sometimes our best friend is our spouse. Here we walk a fine line with telling them what to think and feel because we think we know what is in their mind and heart and know what is best for them VS really listening and asking what they need, want or feel and cherishing them for who they are. Those who have the latter for their spousal relationship are blessed. There should be a "oneness to a marriage" as said in the Bible when both are pulling the same direction. Friendship has a "oneness" to it too.

Some friends are people we meet along lifes road, and for whatever reason, there is a special divine connection sewn with kindness, acceptance, and a freedom to be who we are. Nothing is more special than to have friends like this but we usually only have a few. Those who have more of this kind are special because they attract and keep their friends. They know how to be a true friend.

One of my true friends is my CA friend. I talk with her long distance often (Glad we have cell phones with free long distance!) She never complains or gets upset, she always has a friendly "phone" smile and seems genuinely happy to talk with me no matter when or about what. We have never met face-to-face, but I hope to meet her in Las Vegas (which is the nearest air port for her) and spend a girl weekend hitting the craft stores and talking non-stop. And I will as soon as all my surgeries settle down and we can work it into her work schedule. She always blesses me with her positiveness and encouragement. Thanks so much Davi for being my true and special friend.

Her BD is the same as my daughters and since her gift is on it's way, I will wait to post this until she gets it. I hope she is surprised.

Her card was a simple one using a recently bought stamp off of Ebay, from Stampin Up 2001.( I do not know the name of the set this stamp originally came from. The wood block measures 2 7/8ths by 1 7/8ths and so is not a big stamp. If anyone recognizes it, shoot me an email.) It is a fall still life with a wooden bucket and some bitter sweet and leaves. There are three gourds in front of the bucket. Inside the card is a Double D stamp saying, which I stamped in a mixture of two colors, rust and cranberry SU markers. It says, "May your day be wonderful and special in every way."

Back to the front of my card... I used forest green matting, and was trying to cut some rectangles from (Bo Bunny Forever Fall 6X6 pad ) an orange/gold leaf print. As you can see...my four rectangles are not equal due to a miscalculation on my part (math was never my strongest class), but I decided to use the smaller ones on top and the larger on the bottom leaving the forest green around as a frame. And I think it adds more interest not being exactly the same! "Necessity is the mother of invention" in card making for sure and sometimes our accidents turn out to be really special. Especially when this card was being created just before midnight ...anything can happen at that time of night!

The image was matted in the same green and popped up. I distressed it with some Tim Ho;tz ink. The front "friend" sentiment was stamped in black using just part of a Michaels $1 stamp by Studio G. I punched it out with my SU small oval and punched the next size up out of the green also with an SU punch. I am so glad I brought them along from WI with me. I used a SU cranberry colored marker to draw a fine line design around the leaves on the Bo Bunny print to give it an extra design element and added three rhinestone jewels in gold in the upper right corner. I decided I did not like the "friend" black sentiment and drew over the letters to give it a cranberry coloring. I was going to tie on some ribbon, but honestly couldn't figure out where to put it, so I left it off.

Thanks to all who visit me on my little blog. I wax poetic and philosophical at times, but I do enjoy sharing. LOL!HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVI!

MY SISTER

Today is my sisters BD. She is 2 1/2 years younger and I am thankful for her. She has been through a lot in her life (a car accident leaving her to relearn speech, and many surgeries to regain her walking skills, and much much more. She never quite regained her original balance and requires someone to walk with her as she uses her walker. ) I admire her because she has maintained the sweet Spirit of her faith in Jesus Christ through it all. So dear sister, have a blessed birthday and many more. I love you!

She asked me to sew a little nightie for her and I did. It is still getting hemmed. I have a card for her to go with it. I chose a group of corn stalks with a checked ribbon as my image. I think it is a Dots stamp. I colored it with my Copics, added matting in tan and turquoise and a striped paper for interest. I used a Martha Stewart corner punch for the one corner. I punched little holes and added five jewelry tags down the side and used small brass brads to hold them on. I wrote the letters for Happy on the tags and on the inside stamped in turquoise "...birthday to you". Hope you have a nice fall y'all and thanks for stopping by.

A CUPPA...

While visiting the free card showcase at Archivers last weekend, I came across this really cute coffee cup stamp set to use as an image or as a gift card holder. I also can imagine a little creative cutting to make it look like a flower pot and flowers of any kind can be added. So here are two versions of it used as gift card holders.
The lids flip up to expose the card. TFS

A FEW HEART DROPS

This is an image from Penny Black and she is fun to color with Copics. I only used three colors (but several shades of those three colors) pink, turquoise blue, and yellow. I used a very light shade of pink behind her to make the image pop. That is a Copic trick so that it just isn't all white around the image. Kind of pulls it together. It is REALLY nice having so many shades of each color of the Copics. It gives me lots of options for coloring and blending, although my blending skills need much improvement. I am still learning at 69.

I adhered her on a turquoise blue mat, then popped her up on a light pink mat which has a punched Martha Stewart beaded scallop edge. I used a glitter dot CS in a deep pink under that and matted with a medium pink shade.

I used a hot pink heart button and used some pink/white bakers twine to tie on a small SU jewelry tag that says "friend". The upper right "needed" something and I had a short length of medium pink ribbon that I tied loosely and added on. Seems to help visually, I think. Guess this is my "pink" offering for breast cancer awareness month. Inside it says, "Rain or shine, you're a friend of mine!" And you "are" for taking the time to read my blog. Thanks.

WATERFALL CARD

Halloween stamps at Michaels were the inspiration for this Halloween waterfall card. They were cheap ones and can be used year to year and by the grand daughters. I have made a waterfall card twice before but it has been a while. I do not celebrate Halloween although I think it is fun to dress up in costumes and carve pumpkins and trick or treat with the little ones.

I have a really good friend whose birthday is on Halloween and so that became my reason for making four of this card . I had three other people in mind who might enjoy it. As you can see, there are four small images stacked so that they show halfway. They are matted in four different colors. They are attached to the pull tab and when you pull the tab, the pictures flip up and behind so eventually all four can be seen, one-at-a-time. The four pictures are: a black cat with gold rhinestone eyes, black witches shoes with legs in striped stockings (I covered the black shoes in Glossy Accents), a ghost with purple Stickles dots all around, and lastly "BOO!" with gold stones scattered. The pull tab has a pumpkin face pattern on black. I see that I have the faces up-side-down. : ) The other side is a stripe but doesn't show. The jack o'lantern band is matted to give it some stability and the front part of the tab is attached with double sided tape. I covered the card base with the green print which has spider webs heat embossed in black in both upper corners, and there is a plastic spider hanging down on the right. I tied a little orange ribbon on the tab to indicate it is to be pulled. All coloring was done with Copics and stamped with black Momento ink . I am sorry the little pictures are out-of-order and at different levels. My skills are woefully lacking in trying to get things to look a certain way or lined up. TFS

MY BUTTERFLY

Here is a blue butterfly from Northwoods MN stamp company that I love. Emma colored this one earlier this year. I don't think I ever posted my version of the image. So here goes...

I matted the circular image with a Spellbinders Large Scallop I cut out using my Cuttlebug. I used Copics to color the image and use a blue Spica gel glitter pen on the wings. I popped the circular piece up with pop dots on top of the pink back ground and green matting with a green satin ribbon and bow. It is a simple card, but lots of fun to color.

LOVE WATERMELON

This summer I think I ate more watermelon than I did in the last 10 years. Hubby does not eat it so when I get some, I have to plan. If I buy a whole one, I usually share half with our son's family or with church as a treat for fellowship. In August, I ate a whole big one all by myself over a week-and-a-half and I tell you...it was delicious! I drank some of it putting it in the blender.

Here is a little House Mouse card with mice eating watermelon and looking very happy about it. I so enjoy making House Mouse image cards. They are fun to color, very detailed, make me smile or laugh out-loud, and the best part is when I get to make them fuzzy by gluing on Fun Flocking in brown, black or gray.

I colored the image with my Copics, trimmed the image leaving a narrow edge of white, and matted in red and black. Inside it says, " Relaxing is Mice"! I should go back and add some shading on the sides of the picnic table boards. I did change the coloration around the mice to create some shading. I'm still new with the Copics and have to learn by trial-and-err0r. Hope you enjoy this image as much as I did making it. TFS

LONG TIME NO READ...

Hi there! It has been some time since I posted, about a month and a half. No, I did not go out of the country on vacation! No, I have not been sick (although that might be a matter of opinion.) We breezed through Sept while in MN and have been in WI for Oct. We have been able to keep our grand daughters over night twice, and they attended church with me twice. They seem to really enjoy coming with me and participating in Sunday School, the singing part of worship, and then their own children's worship. I so enjoy being with them.

My card making has been sporadic at best. I have several made this summer and then have made a few since. I will begin with the summer ones. The turquoise blue and green card was made using an image which is called a "reverse" image. The flowers, stems and white parts are the watercolor CS showing through because they are etched out of the flat rubber. The green and turquoise ink were applied to the flat background using markers and blended a little in the middle, then stamped. I believe I also spritzed this one with a little water to give a watercolor effect. I matted it on a piece of turquoise CS that was smaller than my card base on the sides. I punched the bottom edge of the turquoise using the Martha Stewart Vintage Floral border. I mounted it and there was a wide margin left on either side. I kept looking and looking at it for several weeks, and decided to punch the outside borders too and make the front of the card peek-a-boo. I kind of like how it turned out but honestly it just evolved...no creative planning or imagination...just trial and error. Sometimes that works. The inside is one of my favorite sentiments, heat embossed with turquoise.

MY COPIC STORAGE SYSTEM

WOOHOO! Over the Labor Day weekend while Bill was in WI on a consulting job (helping our son install a range hood with ducting to have it blow outside instead of into the kitchen)...I took the opportunity to organize my 320 Copic markers into color families, arrange them by their numbers on the end, mark the brush tip ends with a permanent marker dot (so I could easily identify that end 'cause I use it 99% of the time) and I grouped them in groups as near to 72 as I could without going over. The 5 wallets each hold 72 markers, so they all had to fit.

Red is paired with Red/Violets and the 10 Spica glitter pens (R and RV)

Green is paired with Yellow/Green and Yellow. (G, Y/G, Y)

Blue/Green, Yellow/Red, and all the grays and neutral colors.(B/G, Y/R, Cool grays, Warm grays, Tones of gray shading. and Neutral grays.) I only have about 6 of each of the grays.

Blue, Blue/Violet, Violet, Black and clear blender pen (B, B/V, V, Black 100 and 110, and the clear blender pens)

Lastly are the ecru colors which is every shade from white to dark brown and anything with brown mixed in it. And this family of colors barely fit in the 72 pocket wallet. This has all the skin colors for just about every nationality. (Reminds me of "red and yellow, black and white...they are precious in His sight!")

On each wallet handle I tied a length of 1/4 inch ribbon in the colors inside that wallet. This was to help me identify where to look when I wanted a specific color. AND the system works really well. I hope to also buy or make a bag to carry all five wallets for when we travel between MN and WI. Or I might find a plastic bin just the right size. I carry everything else in plastic bins for traveling.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you will come back soon. I am eating a big bowl of watermelon right now as I type this, enjoying the last of the summer season, probably.

THREE CARDS

Here is a card for a friend who had shoulder surgery last week and I liked it so much, I made two more just like it...one for my mom as encouragement and one as a Thank You for my Scottish pen pal, Ann, who sent me some lovely goodies for crafting.

For the card I used a medium blue Bazzill CS called Wildberry. I took a sheet of lavender on white print and cut it to fit using the Martha Stewart Beaded Arcs punch down the sides. I stamped the Inkadinkado bird house stamp in Momento tuxedo black and I used Copics to color it a darker shade of purple with some purple highlights in the swirls. I colored the bird a blue and then gave it some sparkle with a blue glitter pen. The sentiment is from Hampton Art and was also stamped in black. I added the light blue ribbon and after the picture was taken (I forgot to take a new one!) I added some purple rhinestones to the four corners of the light paper. I also added some dots of the sparkle pen on the beaded arcs punched area. It was a pretty simple card and making two more did not take a lot of time. I need to push myself to make more cards more often. Each card has its own different message stamped inside..."Hope you're better soon", and "...wanted you to know how important you are to me.", the last two with a hand written personal message also.

Thanks for stopping by. I will try to make more cards to give you something nice to look at and a reason to visit my blog.

OUT SPOT

As you can read, I am a bit upset. I visited my dermatologist about a few spots on my skin. One turned out to be a small cyst which he removed. The other is on my nose and he has looked at it in the past and said it was nothing to worry about! Well, I felt it was growing and said I wanted it off...no matter what it was! So he cut off a chunk and sent it to be tested and low and behold...it is a basal cell carcinoma! Now I need to go back and let him cut some more until he gets "clean" skin. Not sure how big it has become inside my skin. And I am not sure who will be trying to sew me up and make it look as good as possible. What I am most upset about is his cavalier attitude and almost non-interest in it for the past few years. Had he taken a piece last year, maybe we would have caught it sooner. Not sure how to feel about it and if I should go to a plastic surgeon to have them do the work of the removal and repair. I only have tomorrow to decide and call someone else if I decide to go that route. So there will be NO pictures or cards with this posting. I am just venting!

Sept 8,20011
I wrote the above and did not call the plastic surgeon to see what I should do. I decided just to go with the dermatologist and hope and pray it won"t look too crooked and ugly after he is done. I even made a joke about "listing to the left" because my nose will be bigger and heavier on that side. LOL

Surgery is in an hour, and I will write when I get back home.

It is early evening and I sit here writing with a BIG white bandage on my nose. It took them two tries to get it all and 2 1/2 hours all total. He was going to sew me up but I looked at it, and it is a "crater" 1/4inch deep and about 1/2inch across. It is really big looking and I told him I wanted a plastic surgeon to fix it. So they booked an appointment for me tomorrow. At least it is not hurting yet. Not sure what tomorrow will bring.

So guys and gals, if you see a spot of anything growing on your skin...be sure to get someone to check it out. You never know! I just hope my nose is decent looking when all is finished.

3 X 3 and BOTTLE CAP

I did make a small Thank You and tried out the "quilling" craft, which is rolling thin 1/8th inch wide strips of paper into spirals, gluing them on the end to maintain the spiral, and then making something from multiple spirals. Archivers was demonstrating this technique and of course now I want to get the tools, the plastic template for the different sized circles, and some paper and glue to be able to add it to my cards. Lucky me Archivers has a coupon good for the next few days and I will be able to save 30% off of part of it. I love coupons!

The card has a textured blue base, 3x3. The white center is masked with a big Post-It note across the upper portion which is slightly larger than the lower. I stamped the dots using Pumice Stone Distressed Ink from Tim Holtz. Then I reversed the masking and covered up the bottom and stamped the tree branches with a Hero Arts stamp using black. They had a thin strip of paper with adhesive on it and I covered up the line between with this slightly darker blue paper piece.

To quill, you stick the end of the paper strip into the slot on the end of the tool, and holding with the thumb and fore finger of the left hand, roll the tool in a circle (rotating the right hand) until all the paper is rolled. Then you slip it off into the size of circle you want it to be, stick a dab of glue under the end and let it dry a few seconds. The bird body was made from a slightly longer in length strip than the head strip. When both are made, glued and dry, you pinch the larger one to create the tail, rub some glue on the underneath edges and place on the card. The head is glued the same and a small piece of yellow is folded in half to create the beak and glued on. Thanks was stamped in black over the dots. It really is not difficult if I can do it with one and a half arms. Pretty simple card and the quilling is easy to do.

The bottle cap is metal, and you stamp a desired image on CS, punch out with a circle punch, use the tool that encloses the stamped circle and covers it with a plastic disc which snaps together and it is pop dotted into the bottle cap. Because of the heighth of the counter and my recent shoulder surgery, I did not honestly have enough strength to push down on the tool to snap it all together. So the demonstrator had to do that part for me. But it is made and a ring added to the edge to hang from a ribbon on a card. I realized after it was done that I should have centered the image with one bird instead of trying to get all three in it. Oh well, this is not something I think I will ever repeat, but it was a learning experience and free. Archivers has been having a free project every week this month and I missed the one at the beginning of the month. This week is using the Sew Easy tool for perforating the card stock and then doing a little embroidery on it. We will see if I can make it go in a straight line since it is a "wheel" and I can see mine going all over the place. LOL

Since writing the first paragraph, I have used the Archivers coupon and bought the template for the cirles, some thin paper, and a package of two tools to do the quilling. I also bought five small books off of Amazon with many ideas for me to use to add quilling to my cards. They have patterns and one included some brightly colored paper strips, glue, googly eyes and a tool. I will be practicing the next 2 weeks and hopefully get some cards done using this new technique.

Thanks for stopping by.

CAT PHOTOS

I have not made any cards since my surgery four weeks ago,and I thought you might like to check out the antics of our three cats.

Mari, our "ewes not fat, ewes fluffy" cat, likes to sleep in the card board box with all the cat toys. She is about 16 lbs and takes up 2/3rds of the box. Because I sleep in my recliner half the night (for a variety of reasons), I am aware of the cats and they often sleep near me. Mari also likes her cat bed too in the afternoon, but I think she gets too warm. I am taking the cat food up and trying to train them all to eat at meal times only and not snack all night. I am hoping Mari will loose a little. Jack tends to throw up at night when his tummy is empty and he tries to eat a little. There has to be a good solution somewhere.


Jack will usually be on the loveseat about 2 ft away sometime during the night, Mari will be in the toy box or sometimes on the back of the loveseat, and Luci likes my lap. She is our "heat seeker". In Oshkosh, she will get up on the back of the couch under the goose neck lamp. Her newest place is on top of my laptop on the kitchen counter. It too is nice and warm since I leave it plugged in all the time. Jack will often get up on the chair next to me as I type on the laptop, or he likes the top of the stair landing. He also likes the top level of our cat tower over in WI, so he is our height seeker. Amazing how different they all are.

SECOND IMPLANT

Well,

I survived the shoulder implant! I have a new man-made shoulder joint and I am almost pain/discomfort free! Woohoo! It is worth it all, believe me. I have spent the better part of the last two years not being able to lift my arm above the bust line. I have had to wash my hair using only the left hand/arm and even now, the left is screaming at me when I wash my hair. So #3 implant will be in the future for me. I begin out-patient therapy for the right shoulder this week and believe I will regain my range-of-motion and the use of this arm above my bust. I have a positive attitude and God seems to have blessed me with a strong body that can handle the surgeries (I do help by eating lots of good foods.) This is so much better than what so many people have to deal with in their later years.

Being in the Nursing Home/Care Center for 11 days was a reminder that I am truly blessed. So there will be no cards posted yet. I am not sure when my shoulder can crank the old Cuttlebug and such. I am just taking it one day at-a-time.

God bless you and thanks for stopping by.

LAST DAY

Today is the last day before my complete right shoulder joint replacement surgery! (Try saying that 5 times quickly!) The doctors scheduling nurse called this morning and adjusted my arrival time from 9am to 11am. So Bill can sleep in a bit longer.

I have been trying to complete a few things before tomorrow. I have a card for the grand daughters to go in their package, I made the card for Becky who is having another surgery Thursday, and I made a card for Mom and included the pictures from her BD celebration. The rest of the family has computers and will get the pictures that way.

Moms card is of a cat with daisies. The stamp is a Penny Black and was stamped in Momento Tuxedo Black ink. That ink does not bleed when using the Copics to color. Yippee! My cards for mom are usually blues, pinks, and purples which are her favorite colors. I chose to make this a little bit different. I did make some small blue flowers on it, but the background paper is a brown shade with green flowers and matted in green. Her cat, Joey, is white and orange and has half of an orange mustache by his nose. So even though this cat had black strips on it, I included the "stache" I also tied on two rows of bakers twine and added some white rhinestones in the corners. As I was laying this out, I felt it needed some curves, so I cut along the upper edge of the white to give it something easy since I was trying to hurry and get finished. Plus my punches are in the bottom bin of the 6 that are stacked, and I did not want to stress my shoulders digging in there and lifting bins. So a quick scissor cut and then I stuck it all down and have it ready to mail with the others today.

The next posting will be sometime from now after surgery and rehab for sure! Not sure when I will be able to make any cards. Say a little prayer for me! Thanks

FRIENDS

God knew what he was doing when he gave us good friends. Friends lift us up just with being there for us, with a kind word or action, and they wrap themselves around our hearts and hurts to protect us and encourage us. THANK YOU HEAVENLY FATHER for giving us friends.

This card is for my friend Becky who is undergoing some horrific experiences with the removal of a tiny skin cancer on her lower eyelid edge between the lashes and the edge. I will not relate the details but my heart goes out to her. And in the middle of her own ordeal, she always has a kind word of encouragement for me. Thanks Becky.

My card is a tile card. I found this butterfly silhouette stamp in the sale items at Michaels last week. It is by Hampton Arts and they call it "window pane monarch". I call it "pretty"! I would have used Versa Mark and my heat gun but they are in WI. I used Momento Tuxedo Black ink, and I stamped it four times on a separate piece of CS. I cut them apart and fit them together to cover the card front. I had wanted to go with a more pastel "look" to the card, but I am not familiar with all the colors of my new Copics yet. One turquoise that I thought was much lighter turned out to be fairly dark. So there went THAT idea out the window. I tested the remainder and only had one surprise. The reddish butterfly was originally meant to be a light shade of orange but it turned out to be kind of mustard, and I have colored over it three times trying to brighten it up. It is "rust" and that is what it will be! I added the magenta jewels to further brighten it and colored some of the swirls a teal and a turquoise. Because some of the grout lines were white and some the mat color, I colored the grout and the mat edges with the teal. Not too bad for an experiment. Isn't that what art is anyway...a big experiment of expression of the inner self? Maybe that is where I got the title of my blog...hummmm!

Ya'll come back 'gin! Ya hear!

CHRISTMAS IN JULY

This has been a great week for me. I finally broke down and bought myself something I had been wanting for over 2 years!!! I now own ALL of the Copic colored markers except the florescent colors and about 14 of the neutrals (I picked some light, some medium and some dark of each of the Cool Grays, the Warm Grays, and the Toner shading markers.) That makes about 310 markers in all and today I colored a cute image of two little girls sitting on a wooden bench reading books together. I wonder who that card will be for? Hmmm!

The Copics will be going up in price from the manufacturer, and by getting them now, I saved over $300. So then, I had to figure out how to store them in an easy to use fashion, and also how to transport them between Mn and WI. I found these black cloth wallets that hold 72 markers in each in a little pocket for each, and you can see the end of each marker clearly with the color number and name. They have not arrived so my markers are in a box for the moment but when the wallets arrive, I will take a photo and show you the system. They are super fun to use and do such a wonderful coloring job. I still need to practice as my skills are kind of mediocre, but I like them a lot.

MN is having a few thunder storms. Dry, cooler weather is coming next week. Wish I could be here for the better weather. Lots to do before I do the surgery.

This card uses a Tina Wenke clear stamp from Stampavie. For all the coloring, I used Copics and it is wonderful to have so many colors to chose from. The matting is Bazzill papers and the print is My Mind's eye "Penny Lane". For the punched corners I used a duel-sided Fiskars punch that cuts the corner into such a lovely shape and then you can emboss it by reinserting the cut corner into the other side. My shoulders are so bad, I could not get it to punch but Bill did it for me (with no strain at all!) I sure hope the surgery fixes that and I can build up my arm strength, or I may have to have a "crafting partner" for those difficult punches. LOL

I tied a piece of bakers twine at the bottom wrapping it twice and making a double looped little bow. I tied on the small tag with the "sisters". The card is really simple and sweet for the grand daughters. I have a little package for them of some new books and hair brushes and M&M's from my mom's 90th BD celebration. SHHH! It is a surprise to let them know I miss them and am thinking of them during my time in the hospital.

Hope you enjoy my card and will come visit again.

THREE WEEKS LATER

I am not sure who reads this but I know God knows who you are. Thank you for being faithful family and friends.

It has been three weeks since I posted anything. I have made it back to MN (another THANK YOU Father , and made it down to TX for my mother's 90th BD. The flight went well and we had all three of moms adult children there plus two of the grand children to celebrate at the Olive Garden. When asked which of her birthdays she liked the best, she said, "This one!" I stayed an extra week so as to be there on her actual BD. She liked the packages of personalized M&M's I had bought for her. She likes having a sweet treat and having the small M&M's made it feel guiltless. LOL! I also got a coursage for her to wear when we went out to lunch, which made her feel special. She hasn't had very many special moments in her life...never went to prom, no white wedding dress in a church and those kinds of things to remember with a smile. I have tried to give her some good memories. I took her to Costa Rica to visit our exchange student, and my daughter went with us for a three generational trip to England, Holland, Germany, Switzerland. We also included my mom and step father in our family trip to Hawaii. So that helps fill in the memories and she has lovely pictures to look at over and over. Mom is the 90 year old gal in the blue and the other picture is of her 3 children (Ken the youngest, Gloria in the middle, and myself the oldest.)

Now I am home in MN and getting ready for my shoulder replacement surgery. I rest in the assurance that God is watching over me and the doctors, and that I will have a good outcome from it. It really is a difficult decision to decide when to replace a "God made body part" with an inferior man made one, but the hip had caused me so much pain towards the end, that I was VERY glad to get rid of the pain. After that surgery in Jan, I can now walk without pain (a bit wobbly since one leg is shorter than the other ). I just have a twinge every once-in-a-while and I can deal with that. The shoulder hasn't had that kind of pain but occasionally, but I can't raise my right arm up past my chest too easily and it is painful when it falls out of the socket a little or the bones rub. So hopefully this will be a good "fix" and I will be happy with this surgery also.

Our temps have been so hot and humid. We stay indoors in the cool as much as possible. You would think I would be cranking out cards a mile-a-minute but I need to get everything out of the bins to use and not looking forward to doing that since I will be gone from the house soon for the surgery and rehab. Here is a picture of all three cats trying to see outside. It is a rare occurrence to have them all three in such close proximity and even rarer that I was able to get a picture before they moved. Mari is the diva laying on the rug. Jack has his back to the camera and Luci is in profile. Not sure what they were looking at...maybe a bug! Smokey the little gray female cat from next door comes over to visit, looks in at them, and I give her a snack and water outside. The owners leave her out all the time, and I am not sure if she gets much to eat. She is really sweet and I wish I had caught her in this picture too. LOL

Every time I open the front door, the glass storm door fogs up with humidity on the outside. So keeping everything shut. Bill said his glasses fogged up when he went to the mail box. But we have been blessed with rain almost every other day and everything is really green and growing...like a hot house or green house. Much better than the rest of the country where everything is turning to desert. I'll put up with the winter any day to have a green summer.

Thank you to those who are praying for me/us. Bill needs it too since he will be alone fixing his own meals for awhile and taking care of the cats. He is getting pretty good at a few dishes (spaghetti, and steak fixed with big egg noodles and mushroom soup.)

God bless ...till next time.

SYMPATHY

We card makers don't usually like the reasons or need for a sympathy card, but it is a fact of life. We would much rather be wishing others joy, happiness, peace, and all the good things GOD has to offer in this crazy and evil world. Sometimes the need for sympathy catches us by surprise. Other times we can see someone slowly going to meet their maker and so are a little more prepared.

Recently a man I did not know passed away quickly from a brain tumor. His wife attends my WI church and plays the electric piano for worship. She blesses me each Sunday with her talent and music. I felt I needed to bless her with a card of sympathy, sharing my talent with her during her sadness. I do not know her very well but maybe I can lift her spirits in some way.

The card I made used a new Stampin Up sail boat image. I have always felt that sail boats and ships somehow represent our lives sailing off into the far distance. I used the EK Success Swirls punch for the ocean and the new blueberry crisp DSP from SU also reminded me of waves and wind. I kept it fairly simple and used some Tim Holtz Tea Distressed ink for adding some distress, and added a simple blue star. For me it represented the shining star of the Savior the night He was born. The color is a stretch, but that was my reason for putting it up in the corner, in the sky to guide the sailboat. Using "faith" as the front message also adds to our reliance on Christ during our journey. Inside is the message "In times like these when it seems hard to find GOD, I can rest in the assurance HE knows how to find me!" We all can rest in GOD knowing HE knows about our circumstances and HE cares and has the way already planned out for us if we would give ourselves over fully to Him. We must seek HIM and have faith in HIM alone. Times will come when we can not do anything about our circumstances, our health, our finances, our children, our government, etc, etc, etc. But we hold onto the one who is the author of our faith and the finisher of our souls. We were created by Him to please Him living as holy a life as we can and He provided the way for use to be truly cleansed and holy in His eyes. Accepting Christ is the only path to true happiness and peace.

GRAND DAUGHTERS

I wanted to have the two grand daughters make a special card for their great grandma's 90th birthday since they will not be able to visit her any time soon. They picked out this "sister" stamp to use and they both wanted to make their own card with it. So they did.






Emma chose the pink sparkle dot CS and the second print CS. She colored the image and I did all the paper cutting (to save little fingers.) She punched all the corners with the SU ticket punch and used the dot runner for getting it all together. I tied the ribbon for her and she added the "hello" and the flowers. Lastly she added the jewels. I had to help since they were so small. We figured out a good inside sentiment and she signed the card.









Matti colored the same image in her own way and chose the balloon birthday paper for the back ground. I did all the paper cutting, she did the corner punching and stamping inside. We got a little extra line under the sentiment, and added the flowers to cover the booboo! There is always a remedy for those booboos and it is part of the learning process for them. You can always "fix it!" And some times the repair looks better than the first effort. Matti also added jewels and signed her card.

They are sweet and colorful and I think "Mamaw Jo" will love them!

90 YEARS

It is hard to imagine living for 90 years. My mother has done her 90 years very well, and remained relatively healthy except for trying to lift the washing machine as a young mom and causing an injury to her back which necessitated surgery later in life, falling out of a stone flower bed and injuring her rib which still bothers her, and the car accident when she hit a small tree on a highway ramp while trying to drive and unwrap the paper on the bottom of her ice cream cone. That one really broke up her wrist on one side and her ankle on the opposite side. She had to have pins put in her wrist with a rod screwed into her arm and wore a cast on her ankle for some time. She also had to spend two months in a rehab facility and then had more rehab afterwards.

But she bounced back and has been surviving as a widow living alone for several years now. Congrats Mom on a life well lived. May GOD continue to bless you and watch over you.

Here is my Mom's birthday card. I had a really difficult decision choosing an image that was appropriate for a card for her 90th. I decided that this fairy lives a "charmed" life, sitting on flowers and having critters for friends. Mom loves flowers and animals, and likes blue so I gave this fairy a blue outfit and blue wings colored with my Spica baby blue pen and darker blue Spica outlines. I used Copics for all the coloring and used an EK Success punch for the double crocheted punched edging. I added some patterned CS and pink ribbon and jewels. I hope she likes it. Thanks for stopping.

ABOUT TO GIVE UP

It has been a month since I posted anything on my blog. I am not keeping up with this as I should and had intended, and I apologize to all my 7 followers if you have checked and there was nothing to look at for such a long time. Even the cards I posted had little response. So I am about to give up on this blog and posting my cards.

I have made some cards and I will show them this time, but not sure how much I will be crafting this summer or posting in the future. After a trip to visit my mom for her 90th birthday the first part of July, I will be preparing for my shoulder replacement surgery and I am sure that alone will curtail my card making for a while.

After having the family home in MN for the Memorial Day weekend and our 46th anniversary, we headed back to Oshkosh for the last three weeks. Now we are going to be headed back the other way tomorrow.

Father's Day came and here is the card for Bill. It is pretty simple. The burgundy trim was from Michaels in their dollar trims. I picked out some basic neutral colors and this one seemed to go along with the coloration of the print paper. Inside it just says "Happy Father's Day". Matti and Emma also made their father a card using the same print paper and used a stamp that said "DAD, you're the best" on the front. I showed the girls how to do heat embossing and they were excited to feel the raised letters in copper.

The other activity we attended was Matti's graduation from Day Care and her 4-K class. Four year olds are required by the state of Wisconsin to attend a half day class in prep for kindergarten. Some do it as Matti did in the day care setting and the school district sends over teachers for the class, and some children go to the elementary school for it. I made her a card just like the one I had made for Emma last year but colored the hair more a honey brown color like Matti's hair. Here is a picture of that card. I used a Precious Moments stamp and paper pieced the sleeve, diploma and hat and used some pink nylon tulle in strips behind the image. Congratulations Matti!

GIRLFRIEND

Here is a cute Changito monkey image from Stampendous that I made up using the "amiga" stamp (friend which ends in a...so it means girlfriend!) Stampendous has a whole bunch of really cute monkey stamps doing different things. Both stamps were from Hobby Lobby in Texas and were in their sale bin! Woohoo! I love their sales when they have good stuff 40% off.

First, I will direct you back a few cards where I told you I had used my Martha Stewart Wild Flower punch on the edge of a card, and then made a stencil by punching it on an extra strip. WELL, what you see at the bottom of this card is that stencil! Card makers are savers and use whatever works to make a card pretty. It looks like the monkey has swooped down over the flowers and picked a bouquet for you!

I ran the darkest green background through my Cuttlebug and dry embossed the Sizzix folder "Vines" on it, used the corner rounder on all four corners. Then I used the Cuttlebug and my new Spellbinders labels 17 to cut the lighter green with one size and the monkey with the next smaller sized die. The monkey image is colored with Copics and I added three white pearls for the centers of the purple flowers. I stamped the "Amiga" stamp with Momento black, used the smallest label 17 die to cut it out and just rubbed the edges with green ink from the green Copic I used on the upper part. It is such a cheerful color combination. Pinks and greens are one of my favorites and this image is perfect for someone living in Costa Rica where they have monkeys in the jungles. This image also can be used for a variety of card types and brings a smile to whomever will receive it. Hope you enjoyed my card creation. Thanks

GET WELL CARD

My card today is a Get Well card. I did not put any sentiment on the front because it was going to our exchange students mother in Costa Rica who had gal bladder surgery this week. They are Spanish speakers and I do not have any Spanish sentiments for them. In side I had to stamp the sentiment in English "Hope you're better soon!"

I used a Penny Black chrysanthemum stamp image. The flowers are pink on the stamp front and even though I don't remember chrysanthemums being pink, I thought the color was pretty and so used it. I used a background that is a dusty pink matted with green and the image is also matted with the same green. I used my Copics to do the coloring. The nice big border is punched with one of my new favorites. Martha Stewarts deep Heart Scroll punch. You will be seeing more of that one for sure. It makes a definite statement on a card and I didn't think it needed much else but added some small square pink tiles up the scroll on either side. You may need to enlarge the picture to see them. Thanks for stopping by.

FOR MY FRIEND

My friend in Kansas has had some really unusual health issues this year. They were in FL for the winter visiting a Marine museum and the wind caught the door she was trying to close and banged her hand so hard it tore the ligament from her center knuckle. She had to have surgery and lots of therapy and it is extremely slow in recovering and being pain free. She also recently had to have a skin cancer removed from her nostril and they had to practically remove most of it and rebuild her a new one using skin and cartilage from her ear. All this makes me feel so concerned about her. I wanted to tell her how special she is to me and that I hope she gets better SOON!

She is a red head and I thought these colors reminded me of her. The flower print was punched with the Stampin Up scallop, and I added a row of white with the same edge. I punched out a slot from the top layer so white could show and wrote "friend" in gold. I layered it on two shades of browns with the opposite corners punched with the corner rounder. I added some gold outlines to the flowers and some fuzzy half pearls in gold to add bling. I then punched a small EK Success butterfly and added bronze glitter glue all over it and popped it up near the word friend. I was afraid the PO would ruin it in the mail sorter machines, so I added a piece of card board inside the envelope with a hole cut out for the butterfly. AND I added a small mini Mr Goodbar and wrapped it to match and made a rectangle hole in the card board for it to fit in. I hope it made it OK and that she starts feeling better soon!

RAK's

Occasionally you run across really nice people who do not mind showing it! I recently bought a stamp set off of Ebay and the seller said it was "gently used" but did not show the rubber side of the stamps in the set. When they arrived, they were all different colors of red down to pink and some were heavily stained and had not been cleaned. The lightest pink ones looked like they had been cleaned with a harsh chemical and the rubber looked dried and not supple. I was disappointed and wrote and told her that I felt she had listed it incorrectly and I would not have bid had I seen the condition of the rubber. She was kind and refunded all the cost and the shipping and said to keep the set. She wanted to make it right and I wrote and told her how kind she was and that she had "good customer service". I also said I would test the stamps and if they did not stamp very well, then I would look for a replacement.

But before I could test the first set, she wrote and said she had found me a good replacement and mailed it to me free of charge. AND she sent another really cute country doll angel stamp with it. That just blew me away, and I told her she had far exceeded anyones expectations. I was most appreciative not to have to hunt myself for it and told her so in an email. I made this card for her, added $5 for the second stamp set and gave her my assurance that I would continue to shop with her and give her good feedback. She was totally surprised by my card and said I did not need to pay for anything. It is nice to deal with nice people in this world and it puts a smile on your face.

The white card base was punched along the front with the Martha Stewart deep punch called Wild Flower border. I punched a second one on a scrap of white and then stenciled the flowers up the front through the holes in that piece onto the card front using markers. I stamped the country doll angel by D.O.T.S on a separate piece of white CS. and colored it with Copics and cut it out. I used purple Spica glitter pen on her shoes, the pattern in her dress and on the heart. I popped her up and added a hand cut heart to write the Thank You on, which I wrote with the purple Spica and outlined with black. I think she turned out pretty cute.

BOY BD CARD

I usually don't get invited to a 12 yr old boys birthday, but the young man I am grooming to take care of our lawn and such came over Tuesday and cleaned out the rocks which were full of leaves, and cleaned out three flower beds and got rid of the old dead flora stems from last year. It looks sooo nice and the shower we had over night gave all my tulips and daffodils a great drink. Anyway, he said he had a surprise for me and he waited until he was done for the day to tell me he was inviting my husband and me to his BD party which was the next night. It was a big family event with grandpas and grandmas, aunts and uncles and cousins. We said we would attend and I gave him a Vikings large drink cup filled with two packages of M&M's and about a dozen fire balls. We also gave him $10 and Bill had enough spare computer parts and put together a desk top computer for him. He was terrifically excited, especially with the "yoke" for airplane simulator games. Bill was about 12 when he became interested in flying and was able to be a Navy pilot and fly off of an aircraft carrier during his career. So Bill is in his element inspiring a young boy with an interest in flying.

The card for Jon was pulled together VERY quickly. I used a soft blue/white striped paper, matted in blue, stamped a polka dot elephant on it using the Penny Black elephant image called Elephant Song. There is a bird sitting on the elephants rump and I used the saying "A little bird told me it was your birthday", from Inkadinkado. Inside I just stamped "Happy Birthday in black Momento ink. I did draw some green grass under the elephants feet and colored his polka dots blue and shaded with my Copics. It was very simple and I think a fun card for a boy.

Thanks for stopping by.

BANANA PAPER

Here is a Mother's Day card I sent to a couple of friends who make cards. I had bought some gorgeous lace on Ebay and added some for them to use on their cards. I hope they like it all. My card uses the banana paper my daughter picked up in Puerto Rico for me. It looks white in the photo but has a gray tint to it. I really like the look of it and stamped the image with purple and pink ink using the Stampabilities floral silhouette stamp and the sentiment is from Impression Obsession. I tore around the image and saying, and the DSP to create some interest and I had a difficult time fitting it all on the front. I added small light purple rhinestones to the flowers and three in the lower right corner. (which are difficult to see in the photo!) Inside it says, "You make each day a little bit brighter". Happy Mother's Day to all who are privileged to be mothers.

MOTHER'S DAY

Here is the card I made for my mother almost a month ago. I had to wait to post it because I was going to TX to visit her, and wanted to give it to her before I posted this. WELL, my 6 day trip turned into a three week trip. Mom had to have carotid artery surgery (she is 89 and had 90% blockage on the right side and the doctor said it was amazing she had not already had a stroke!). So I was there to care for her, feed her good healthy food, clean up the dishes and help with the cat, and be her driver. My trip down was pretty smooth. I was not sure how getting through security would work with my recent hip implant. And because I also have missing cartilage in my shoulders, I had to use a wheelchair and the airport service people were so kind and helpful. So not too bad going down or coming back.

My card uses a large stamp by Carolyn Shores Wright. I stamped it in black Momento ink, colored it mostly using the Copics I had. I did have to buy several greens, and one is a Spica glitter pen to make the hummingbird iridescent. I stamped it again, colored it and cut out the parts that are closest and popped them up over the first image I had colored. The edges of the white and the pink mat are punched with a Martha Stewart floral lace punch and then the whole matted with a darker pink. I could not find a ribbon I liked that was the right shade so matched up the light dotted Swiss ribbon to go with the lighter shades of pink in the flowers. Mom usually prefers cards with blue on them, so this one gets her out of her comfort zone a bit. But she was pleased with it.

Thanks for coming to visit.

THANK YOU CARDS

Both grand daughters had birthdays 4 days apart in March. Their great grand mother (my mom) who is 90 in July, sent them a musical Disney card. So we got busy and each girl made a Thank You card for her, which I will take down to her this week.

Matti (now age 5) picked out a clear stamp of a little girl and wanted to color it to look like herself. She first picked out a marker she thought was brown and it turned out to be black. She had already colored part of the hair with it and was disappointed at the color. I told her we could restamp it on another piece of white CS and she could color the popped up face the right color, which is what she did with a little help from grandma. I told her to leave strips not colored with the brown and then go back and add yellow highlights. Her hair is light brown but also has some blond and red mixed in. Not sure what color it will be when she grows up. But if she has her choice, it will be magenta! She loves that color. She stamped the flower background using a Hero Arts background stamp and colored in most of the flowers. She got tired and grandma finished for her. I do all the cutting using the paper cutter (to save little fingers!) and she adhered the sentiment onto the pink mat and popped it on. She loves Stickles and added lots of magenta Stickles all over the flowers and a little onto the sentiment piece by accident But it looks really good. Inside she stamped THANKS in orange, and wrote Love, Matti in pink. She did a wonderful job and I am sure great grandma will love the bright colors.

Emma, now 6 (with 6 teeth missing), took her favorite rose image to color. She wanted it pink, so I gave her all four shades of pink markers. I shared that roses look more realistic if you color the tips of the petal a lighter shade, and make it darker nearer the center and underneath the petal. And I left her to color while I went to make them dinner. I had showed her the green sparkle CS I had and she liked it and wanted to use it. I cut it into a rectangle that would fit the card front and she used a decorative punch for the corners. I did the tearing around the rose to give it a more rustic look. I think she did well on the coloring but she too wanted Stickles on the rose, so when she put the pink Stickles on it and rubbed with her finger, it kind of moved the ink around a little. But that is what being an artist is all about. Some of our mistakes can become most beautiful by accident. She made the little leaves under the rose a darker green than the main leaves. She must have remembered what I said about the petals being darker and applied that to the leaves also. It is amazing to me how much they have learned about card making in the year we have been doing it together. Inside Emma stamped the wonderful sentiment, "Love and kindness are never wasted. They always make a difference. THANKS" She wanted to write so put "To Mamaw Jo (with the J written backwards) and "I love you, Love Emma" Then she added a whole row of XOXOXOXO across the bottom. It is so sweet and each girl put a lot of herself into each card. Mom doesn't have a computer so will not see this or read it but I know she is going to really enjoy the cards from the grand girls.

Thanks for coming to my blog. If you have not joined my merry little band of followers (all 7 of them!) , feel free to add yourself. I know I would have more followers if I were posting cards every day and entering lots of challenges, but my family comes first and since I am not the sharpest computer person, I am probably near my learning limit with this machine. I will continue to make cards as needed and try to post as often as I can and enter challenges when I have time and can figure it out again. Thanks for your patience.

FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CARD

This is a first for me. I don't think I have ever created a 50th anniversary card. My friend Gloria at Living Vine Church asked me to make one and wanted to pay me. She has been so friendly and kind, sharing recipes and calling while I was in rehab for my hip relacement. I told her it was my privilege to do something for her. And it was a definite challenge because I almost NEVER do anything with gold. I had to go and buy the shiny gold card stock for it, some gold ribbon, and some gold embossing powder. So now I am all set if anyone else has a 50th! Yaaa!

My card base is the cream card stock. On a separate piece of white card stock, I decided to use a beautiful rose brass stencil and I sprayed the card stock through the stencil with gold Glimmer Mist (Neither the stencil or the GM had ever been used yet!) I am totally surprised that the roses show up so well in the photo. Anyway, I had to mop up the excess of the Glimmer Mist liquid and let it dry. It was a bit lumpy from having been wet, so I piled a bunch of books on it and let it sit for a few days and it almost became flat again. At least flat enough that I wanted to use it. I used deckled scissors to cut around the edge leaving a small white border for a frame. That gave me the idea to make the gold frame.

I found a corner punch in my bin of little used punches, did some measuring and cut the gold a little bigger than the rose piece. I then punched the corners hoping that I had measured correctly. It looks like a much brighter gold in real life. I added the little sentiment "celebrating" which was stamped on the cream CS and heat embossed in gold and cut out with a Nestie. I folded the ribbon gently and stuck it down and then popped the sentiment over it. Inside I heat embossed "50 wonderful years" using Versa Mark and gold embossing powder. Not a real complicated card and I did not make lots of layers because Gloria has to mail it. Thanks for stopping by.

MY SPECIAL DAY

It isn't every day a person lives to be 69 years old. I feel privileged to have made it this far. So many do not for a variety of reasons. I feel blessed to have my almost 46 yr marriage to Bill who shares the ups and downs of each day with me, my family of a wonderful mother, sister, and our children, Beth and Bill, daughter-in-law, our grand daughters and all those special people I call "friend"! My life is rich upon this old ball of dirt. I feel MOST blessed because when I was a teen, I met Jesus and asked Him to forgive my sins and to come into my heart, having the Holy Spirit to dwell in me and guide me since. I am not perfect or always made the right decisions during my journey thus far. But I know whose I am and where I will be when my life is over. I may have to endure some difficulties with my present joint health and need for replacements coming up. But I know He is with me through what comes and will sustain me. And I am content in Him. May God bless each one as you seek to know Him personally and follow Him in service. This is my prayer for all.

The above paragraph was written last night. I awoke today to a gray day and every kind of weather that you can imagine...except SUN! We have had rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets and every form in between. The roads are getting slippery, as well as the sidewalks and even the house. We can hear it hitting the aluminum siding and windows and it is scaring the cats a bit.

Today we went to Bill's appointment with the pulmonary doctor and he said Bill's 5 hour test was good. His oxygen level is improving but he does have a "paralyzed diaphragm" on the right side. We think it was due to the shingles he had when Chaka was sick and had to be put down. That was a time that was hard on both of us. But he is OK for now. We went to Cost Cutters and he got his fave buzz haircut for $10 and then onto Appleton for me. Archivers called and had the EK Success flower punch I had been waiting for. I also got some Flower Soft to try, some gold Embossing Powder and some extra sheets of pretty card stock. We stopped at the Wal-mart up there and we had lunch at Qdobas. Then headed home. We went to the movie "Lincoln Lawyer" which we had heard in an audio book. It was good and we enjoyed ourselves.

I did make a 50th Anniversary card for a friend of mine at church. I will post it after I give it to her on Thursday.

All in all...the cards, the phone calls, the gifts, the activities, all made up my special day and sharing it with Bill was the best. Thanks everyone who remembered me and Thanks honey. I love you forever!

GRAND DAUGHTERS BD CARDS

This week is a busy one. Today was Matti's 5th BD. We picked her up and let her pick lunch...Surprise! surprise! We ate at McDonalds but she did get chicken nuggets for a change. She took cupcakes for her daycare classmates and had a BD crown with 5 candles on it. She was very excited and energetic today. Please note the relaxed photo of Matti as she plays Angry Birds on the Touch. She loves that game! And what about those orange socks! She is a fashionista some days and Jack is noticing them too.

I worked on a card for her and her big sister whose BD is 4 days away. I looked through my stamps and decided to make them a card alike but with the different ages of their BD on it. The Penny Black image of a hedgie opening a gift in three littlescenes works wonderfully. The gift box opens and out comes a balloon. I popped the balloon up and put a 5 on it for Matti and a 6 on Emma's. They both like pink and purple but I used two shades of pink for the matting. I found a black paper with pink streamers (and other colors) and white confetti and it all tied together. I covered the balloon with Glossy Accents. I stamped a small sentence that says "Happy Birthday! It's your day to celebrate." above the image. I added three little pink tile accents in the upper left corner. Inside it says "Hip, Hip, Hooray!" in pinks. It turned out pretty cute but is longer than a normal card. I may have to use those business envelopes again, but they won't care. Here is Emma blowing out her candles. She asked for a strawberry cake and the one her mom made was delicious. Here is a closeup of her card hedgie. Happy Birthday to our wonderful grand daughters! Thanks for stopping by.