The Heart Within

PASSWORDS, ETC....

2012-01-25T10:49:00.006-06:00

Hello my few faithful friends! I know, I know! I have not written on my blog for EVER it seems like. It has been so long I almost did not remember my password! But I am still here, or at least most of me is. Jan 4th I had my left shoulder replaced and WHOOPEE! I am pain free! I can not begin to tell you how good that condition feels. I am three weeks after and have one more week to wear the "sling". I am supposed to wear it 24/7 but I keep the arm propped on a little pillow when sitting in my recliner and that gives me a break. I also sleep without it a lot but I am not a wiggler and there isn't much room to wiggle in my chair anyway. Friday I begin therapy once per week and that will help me progress quickly. I have 90/95 % of my right shoulder range-of-motion back, although I am not supposed to lift heavy things. I hope to go to the YMCA and strengthen all my muscles as best I ca later. I am beginning to have occasional pain twinges from the left hip and knees. But I am hoping they hold off a long time so I can just live without pain, surgery and nursing homes on my plate.

Bill is my Knight in shining armor helping do the vacuuming, laundry, and emptying the dishwasher. He also helps with the kitty litter and lifts pans full of water etc. We work together for meal prep when needed. Love him to pieces!Thanks !

My incision must be healing because it itches right now under the steri strips. But I am OK with that since it is so much better than pain. I only had pain meds for the first 6 days and have had nothing since! That is a blessing for sure!

Attended a Valentine Showcase which was offered free by my local Archivers on Monday.We had 3 inches of new snow in the early morning hours and I was the only one of four who showed up. I was able to get to know the demonstrator and learned she also is a Christian, a pastors wife and has a house cleaning business. I wrote her name and number down for future use. LOL!

Of course I had to get a few of the sweet stamps that were used and most everything I bought was geared to Valentines and spring cards. Hopefully I can get some finished and posted before the 14th.

Hope all is well with you. Thanks for remembering me and stopping by.

ANOTHER PIECE IS GONE

2011-12-03T23:49:00.002-06:00

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...

2011-11-18T13:04:00.004-06:00

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

2011-11-16T10:41:00.009-06:00

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

2011-11-12T10:31:00.011-06:00

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...

2011-10-27T01:15:00.005-05:00

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

2011-10-27T00:51:00.007-05:00

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

2011-10-27T00:09:00.011-05:00

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

2011-10-27T00:03:00.004-05:00

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

2011-10-26T22:50:00.008-05:00

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...

2011-10-26T20:54:00.006-05:00

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

2011-09-08T20:57:00.005-05:00

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

2011-09-08T12:31:00.005-05:00

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

2011-08-31T02:42:00.009-05:00

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

2011-08-18T12:11:00.010-05:00

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

2011-08-18T11:58:00.013-05:00

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

2011-08-14T21:25:00.004-05:00

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

2011-07-26T10:09:00.006-05:00

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

2011-07-25T14:20:00.006-05:00

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

2011-07-23T18:48:00.008-05:00

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

2011-07-19T11:39:00.006-05:00

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

2011-06-27T13:54:00.006-05:00

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

2011-06-27T13:21:00.008-05:00

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

2011-06-27T12:08:00.007-05:00

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

2011-06-27T11:15:00.008-05:00

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

2011-05-25T12:38:00.004-05:00

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

2011-05-25T12:24:00.004-05:00

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

2011-05-20T09:34:00.007-05:00

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

2011-05-20T09:09:00.003-05:00

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

2011-05-05T22:57:00.007-05:00

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

2011-05-03T19:48:00.014-05:00

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

2011-05-01T08:24:00.004-05:00

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

2011-04-05T14:31:00.005-05:00

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

2011-04-03T17:09:00.007-05:00

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

2011-03-21T21:10:00.009-05:00

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

2011-03-16T20:50:00.015-05:00

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 little scenes 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.

LITTLE BUTTERFLIES

2011-03-16T20:10:00.016-05:00

I had another idea for the Colour Q challenge last week. I took a white panel, ran it through the CB and texturized it with some leaves and vines. I matted it in black after nipping the corners with a punch. I took the colors from the challenge (daffodil yellow, pumpkin pie, and baja breeze) and punched the Martha Stewart pop up butterflies border out of a 1/2 inch strip of each. I scattered the butterflies over the vines and leaves. I cut out a buckle type CB tag in black, cut a center out of turquoise and stamped "Thanks" on it. I used yellow satin ribbon and red double stick tape to stick it all together. The Thanks tag is popped up and also has a couple of butterflies added. For bling, I put a small orange rhinestone on each of the pumpkin pie butterflies. Pretty simple and almost CAS.

Using the punched out 1/2" strips leftovers, I layered them across another card and left a 1/4 " space of white between. On another leftover piece of white, I stamped the individual words of "ON", "YOUR", "SPECIAL", "DAY" in black Momento and punched them each out with the SU slot punch. For the short words, I adhered a thin strip onto the word after doing one end, and then did the other end. That is how I got the different sizes out of one punch which is about 1 1/4" long. I also added some Stickles to some of the butterflies on the front and the ones on the bookmark Inside the card, it says Happy Birthday and I used all three colors of ink to stamp. I added a few more butterflies and a book mark as a keepsake. I stamped the Scripture Numbers 6:24-25 in black Momento, punched the white corners on the top layer of the bookmark with a decorative punch and matted in yellow and turquoise. I added a ribbon tie. This card is for a friend at church. Her BD is the same as my oldest grand daughter and she is always so friendly to me and made me feel welcomed. I think she will be surprised. Happy Birthday, Lovelie (That is her real name! She is from Haiti.)

So with this post and the previous one, I have three cards using the colors from the Colour Q challenge last week and they are all fairly different. That is in itself a challenge. Maybe next time I will get busy and post them in a timely fashion. Thanks for stopping by.

LONG CARD

2011-03-16T19:37:00.004-05:00

I wanted to make a long card that would fit into a business envelope...I don't know why! I just wanted to try it. It creates some challenges that smaller cards do not have. I had planned to enter this also for the Colour Q challenge but did not get it posted in time. So I will show it to all 7 of you who read my blog.

I absolutely love this Scripture stamp. It says so much for all of us. The white curly line is the place where the card opens. That is the new Stampin Up punch that I used on the card base edge. Then I covered the top fold and the bottom fold with black, leaving the punched edge showing on both.. It took a bit of measuring and trial and error in placement of the tiles to get everything to line up as I wanted. The tiles were cut out, had one corner nipped with a punch, positioned so that each nipped corner is placed in a different direction. I also over stamped the tiles and the scripture with a flourish and Tim Holtz Old Papers distressed ink. I cut the scripture with my Cuttlebug and the lacey circle Spellbinder, matted with a classic circle in turquoise, and the yellow is a large scalloped circle and all three popped up on the top. The rose is just a white punched circle that I tore in a spiral and then wound around a thin tool I have for Quilling. I rolled some of the edges and added the Martha Stewart punched leaves. Inside I left it blank to write a long note instead of just sending a sentiment. Thanks for stopping by.

A WEEK AGO

2011-03-16T19:24:00.003-05:00

Yes, this was taken March 9th when we had 6 inches of snow in the course of a 24 hour period. This is the view out of my craft window on the front of our condo. You can see the yew evergreen and behind it my butterfly bush. I will have to trim the butterfly bush later and new growth will spring forth and beautiful flower clusters will bloom and attract lots of different butterflies and other flying critters.

So hopefully this is a final salute to winter for this season. But you never know up here in the northern US. Come on SPRING! We are ready and for those who are not familiar with our weather, we have the MOST wonderful and perfect temperatures in spring, summer and fall! Worth waiting all winter for, believe me! I love it!

KID'S BIRTHDAY CARDS

2011-02-21T12:42:00.007-06:00

Before I went for my hip replacement, I created a couple of kid's BD cards using the Penny Black stick figure girls. I made a little kit out of the images after stamping and cut everything to shape ahead-of-time. Then when I went to my son's house for dinner, I was able to set the grand daughters up and showed them my sample and they colored the images as they wished and then used the pop dots to stick things together and adhere what needed to be where it needed to go. The image at the left is of the little girl with the pony tail and flowers. The curly headed girl has stars on her outfit. Both use the same Happy Birthday paper and the same sentiment. The ones the grand daughters made looked just like these samples I made to share with you. Pretty cute and happy cards for kids. Makes one want to be happy, which is a choice we all have. Happiness comes from within each of us! Thanks for stopping by and BE HAPPY!

BACK TO WINTER

2011-02-21T11:30:00.012-06:00

Here I was getting all ready for spring, and a major snow storm rolls across the upper Midwest. We received 6" of fresh new white stuff and the wind was blowing making drifts even higher. So last night when I could not sleep, I got up and colored this cute snowman that had been stamped in Momento black ink back in Dec. He is so cute holding the little birds nest with a bluebird in it (The beak was not like a cardinals beak, so had to be a small seed eater bird...details.) I wanted to use my Copics, and I have three shades of pink, so I guess the snow"man" is really a "woman" since I colored the scarf and hat in the pinks. I used a pale lavender and pale blue to indicate shape and shadows on the snow woman. I like the magenta buttons particularly.

For the card...
I am the kind of person who doesn't throw away items that I see possibilities in. I am not a junk saver or trash saver per say, but if an item looks of interest creatively, then I will hang onto it a while. I buy my red double stick tape from Hobby Lobby and it comes on a card board with a plastic cover that is a 1/2" deep circle. The plastic circle has always looked interesting to me, so I have saved several of them. I decided to make a snow globe out of the circular plastic and used the snow woman image behind it with some glitter inside. I probably should have used more glitter or some tinsel glitter I have, but I was afraid to over do and it is "nailed shut" with double stick tape and would be destroyed if I tried to add some more now. Oh well, experience is the best teacher, right!

Boy, this was an engineering project and I am not the greatest in measuring or cutting. There are 4 layers of matting. I stuck the lightest pink down and did not realize I needed or should have cut a circle out of it. I did learn one of my Spellbinders classic circle dies fits very nicely over the plastic circle. But I did use that die to cut a circle out of the next three layers. I used some Martha Stewart punched snowflakes to cover up some of my edges that were not uniform. I used a swirly hot pink CS that reminded me of swirling winds. I am liking the brightness of the hot colors of this card. I added a small hand written (in white) sentiment "Happy Winter" and matted in hot pink. I honestly could not find anything small enough to fit, so had to write it myself.

So for those of us who are still in the throws of winter weather, take heart and keep warm. Spring will come when the good Lord allows it to. God is faithful and He gives us the beauty of renewal and rebirth on the earth and in our lives if we believe that Christ died for us and we will have eternal life. Thank you Father for all your wonderful blessings and gifts. Thanks for stopping by.

HEARTS AND FLOWERS

2011-02-17T21:19:00.005-06:00

Here is a heart of flowers that I colored with Copics and SU markers several months ago, not sure what I would do with it. I fussy cut around it and matted in pale pink and ran a darker pink marker around the edges to define it a bit.

I had used my CB to make this argyle #2 background and matted that in Bazzill strawberry splash. I had a medium piece of pink left over and ran it through the Swiss dots and then edged it with the Martha Stewart scalloped scallop punch. I felt the white looked really plain, so stamped a small double heart outline stamp in each of the diamonds that would show using Versa Mark and heat embossing in white Zing EP. It is a subtle addition but made me happier.

I adhered the pink strip, the heart and tied my pink dotted ribbon using my Bow-Easy. The sentiment is only half of another one and I stamped it in pink and matted in pink and popped it on to look like it is hanging from the bow. I then adhered the whole top down to the card. Now for some, this card may seem lopsided with most everything to the left. But I kind of like the negative space on the right. Thanks for stopping by.

SENTIMENT FOCUS

2011-02-16T10:06:00.006-06:00

Hi everyone! The card I have for you today uses a sentiment for the focal image, and hearts, but can be used for someone you love and not just on Valentines Day.

I began with a white base, punched two strips of Heidi Grace DSP using a Martha Stewart lace hearts border. I matted those with a Bazzill watermelon CS. After getting those adhered on the card, I stamped the Tim Holtz sentiment using Versa Mark on a separate white piece, heat embossed with black Zing, and colored the roses and leaves on the image. I used my CB to cut the image and emboss the extra edge and I also did a lighter shade of Bazzill strawberry splash as the matting, doing the double edge there too. The top image was also distressed using the Tim Holtz "old papers" ink. At first I thought it was way too dark, but decided to continue on and see how the whole thing looked. I used a runner glue to put the two Nestie scalloped rectangles together and popped the whole up at an angle. I punched two different Martha Stewart hearts out of the two shades of pink I had already used, and layered them up with pop dots. The lower left corner looked plain, so added a small dotted sheer pink bow made with my Bow Easy.

This card fits the following challenges:
Crazy 4 Challenges- Hearts
All sorts-Focal image

VALENTINE CARD #3

2011-02-14T21:32:00.012-06:00

Yes, there is another card with the Penny Black hedgie and it is a "gate card". I fussy cut the Copic/SU colored hedgie out and I stamped a big dotted heart from Imagine That in black Momento ink, and matted it in a darker pink and then black. Then I sat looking at it for more than a day. I decided to make a gate card in the same pink and used the Martha Stewart Gothic Fence corner punch to decorate the corners of the gate (love that look!). The large heart is adhered to the left side of the "gate" only and the hedgie is popped up for some dimension. I added some Glossy Accents on the hearts stuck on his fur. I stamped "I really do love you" (2001 Penny Black) in black and added a tulle bow in pink on the front. It is very simple, but I do like CAS! The only thing I wish I had done differently would have been to stamp the sentiment higher but at that point, I did not know I was going to add the big tulle bow. Oh well, next card maybe!

Thanks for stopping by.

Challenges:
Weds 7 Kids College Challenge (hearts)
Tues Paper Take Weekly (hearts)
Tues A spoonful of sugar (love)

VALENTINE CARD #2

2011-02-14T04:01:00.013-06:00

This card is a step card with three "mountains" and two "valleys" between. I found it difficult to get a good picture of this. The front face of the first "mountain" has pink matting and a strip of scalloped DSP I found at Archivers. I had a bag of shiny red buttons and tied the three largest with pink crochet thread which was a little soft and difficult to keep tied. I of course did NOT have a heart button in that bag and I wanted one. So I just punched one from shiny paper and it can be seen clearly in this picture.

The second mountain has the same pink matting and scalloped punched DSP. I stamped "Happy Valentines's Day" in red on white and cut out using my CB and embossed the framed edge. Then I mounted a red CS scalloped oval behind, which was also cut out with the CB and a scalloped die. This piece is popped up.

The third "mountain" face also has pink matting. My piece of DSP was a little short, so I added a punched scalloped Martha Stewart border in white, but it doesn't show much. I then added a cut out heart in white behind the red doily to give it support. I cut the image out using the CB using the oval nestie. I popped the hedgie up on pop dots on the heart doily and flat adhered the whole thing on the left side. I stamped the little stamp "XOXO Hugs & Kisses" and used a small tag punch to punch each part out. I matted each with red CS and added a pink bow made with the crochet thread.

This is on it's way to our daughter who is so special to us. Happy Valentines Day, Beth!

This qualifies for these challenges:

Tuesday Throwdown-"buttons"
Monday Flourishes- "buttons"
Monday Crafty Card Makers- "hearts"

HAPPY vALENTINES DAY TO ALL

2011-02-14T03:32:00.008-06:00

LOVE (or the material manifestation of it) is everywhere. All the stores have heart balloons, candy, heart decorated paper plates, napkins and cups, stuffed animals with hearts on them, coffee mugs with hearts, cling decorations for the windows depicting hearts of all kinds, and that is only at the grocery store. At other stores you get the same push for buying something with hearts.

Why does Valentine's Day need to be only one day in the year? Aren't we supposed to love others and do nice things all year long? This question has been on my mind and probably will be there a long time. I know what my Bible says about LOVE.

GOD is LOVE and HE never changes, never lies, and keeps HIS promises.

JESUS loved us (His creation) so much that HE willingly sacrificed HIS holiness, His kingship, and gave HIMSELF to die for our sins that we might be forgiven. HE wanted to please GOD and so came to earth as a man, went through a horrible death, the grave, and rose again. Such a love was for all who would believe in HIM.

We don't talk much about sacrificial love in our society. It is mostly about what can we get from someone, and NOT what can we give for the benefit of others.

Something to think about on this day of celebrating LOVE!

Here is a card I made several weeks go using the Penny Black hedgie with hearts stuck on his fur. I have made about four cards using that image. He is so cute! The red mesh is a metallic ribbon I bought after Christmas. It is full of wires and so I had to just stick it down with double stick tape. I could feel the tape through the mesh, so threw some diamond dust glitter on it to cover. (Necessity IS afterall, the mother of invention!) I ran the red yarn with silver threads over the mesh three times and secured it by tying a bow on the front. On the inside, where it criss-crosses, I punched a tissue heart and a solid CS one and adhered those over that point. I cut the hedgie out using the deckle edged rectangular Nestie, and matted with red solid CS. I stamped the sentiment, punched it out using the Stampin Up slot punch and mounted with red. I gave the hearts in his fur a coating of Glossy Accents. I think it turned out pretty cute and I have more of this same image to use. (maybe next year!) I hope to make them all totally different...we shall see.

I am sure this would fit a couple of challenges, but it is late in the day, so I won't hunt for them right now. I plan to make my hubby a nice grilled NY strip steak dinner for his Valentine dinner.

Thanks for stopping by.

LUCI CAT

2011-02-11T10:18:00.006-06:00

At night I begin my sleep in bed with Bill, but somewhere about midnight -2am, I get up to go to the bathroom and since he is snoring pretty good, go sleep in the craft room on the day bed. I use my walker at night for stability in walking and as I go by the main bathroom I turn the light on and close the door almost shut and use that as a night light. When I went into that bathroom sometime later in the wee hours, here sits Luci in the sink. With the bathroom light on and the door almost shut, it gets very warm in there and I think the sink picks up that warmth. She is the one who likes to lie on the back of the couch under the pole lamp, kind of like taking a sun bath with a heat lamp. So I guess she is just keeping warm up here in these frigid temps. It was -20 degrees wind chill a couple of nights. I am so thankful for our warm houses and so is Luci.
Thanks for stopping by.

BELATED BIRTHDAY CARD

2011-02-11T08:56:00.006-06:00

This last week was my son's 37th BD and I completely forgot the date. Grrr! Lately I have to look at my cell phone to see the date. When you don't have any reason to keep track of the date, it kind of gets lost. Plus I am more concerned with my walking skills right now and so am not thinking about other things much.

I made my son a quick belated card the day after. His oldest (Emma, who is almost 6 yrs old) picked out this House Mouse image because they were having fun in the snow. I matted it with some blue solid CS and some birthday paper behind the image and heat embossed some snowflakes all over the image to make it look like snow falling. I ran Scotch tape around a Q-tip to make it as small a circle as I could, then dipped it into the Versa Mark and made the dots. I used white embossing powder and heat set it. Some of the dots were made prior to coloring, and some after. But they all look the same! : ) I colored with a mixture of Copics and Stampin Up markers. I gave it to Bill when he and the girls came for dinner. Happy Birthday Som!

MY MOTHER"S VALENTINE

2011-02-11T07:38:00.007-06:00

This little girl on this Penny Black image reminds me of a picture of my mother when she was 5 or so. She had a little Dutch boy hair cut with bangs and her angelic face looked just like this stamp. She was standing by the roadster that her mom and grand mother had driven down to Mexico for a road trip back in the 20's. It is a cool picture, and if I can get a copy, I will post it.

Mom likes blue and pink a lot so I tend to gravitate to making her cards with blue or pink as the main color. I began with a black and then blue matting, adding a white lace layer and the light blue paper both punched using a Martha Stewart punch (Vintage Lace) I stamped the inside of the card and then adhered the ribbon on the front and back and tied the whole card shut. It will give her something new to do...untie her Valentine card!

I colored the image using my few Copics and some Stampin Up markers, and added the magenta Stickles for some glitz. I popped the image and sentiment up with pop dots. The sentiment is stamped in pink, and punched with a Stampin Up slot punch, and then matted with blue. I added a pink pearl heart to her hat, which is the only heart on this Valentine card. But I think she will be pleased with it. We mailed it with a small box of chocolate candies, and a cat comb for her cat. We comb our 3 cats to keep their fur smooth and they have less shedding. Mom expressed a desire to try a comb like ours and so she shall. She likes little gifts and I try to surprise her from time to time.
Thanks for stopping by.

SIMPLE

2011-02-11T06:50:00.007-06:00

Here is a card I have thought about making for a long time. It requires that you stamp it 3-4 or more times, depending on the layering you plan to do. I stamped it 6 times and then set it aside months ago and didn't do anything with it until now.

It is a large Holly Berry House (has nothing to do with the movie stare Haley Berry) medallion stamp which I have lots of different ones ( an Ebay collection of mine) LOL! I decided to color this medallion with shades of pink and combined my few Copics with my Stampin Markers to get enough shades. I colored the bottom layer completely first so I would know where I was going with it, and then each layer above just got that layer colored. The cutting took the longest and deciding where to cut. I popped the three layers up. I was surprised that there is a "right" placement to the layers where the lines line up correctly.

I cut a plain white piece of CS with my CB and ran it through the Swiss dots folder and adhered it flat behind the medallion.It only shows near the bottom under the medallion (rotten camera skills here!) I stamped "be mine" (from Amuse) in pink and added some very small magenta heart rhinestones to the medallion and one beside the saying. I am liking simple more and more, every time I am able to accomplish it. I think it really requires a different skill set. Anyone can clutter up the card inside and out with bunches and bunches of layers, embellies, etc, but to make a simple card that seems to linger in the mind and make you smile at its simplicity is an artistic accomplishment, IMO! Don't get me wrong...cluttered cards can be pretty too, they are just different from the simple ones.

The opinions expressed here are mine alone and it is my blog where I share what I am thinking about and what I am thinking. I don't expect everyone or anyone to agree with me. It is JUST MY OPINION! Thanks for stopping by.

A FAVORITE

2011-02-08T23:02:00.007-06:00

This card is made using one of my very favorite kinds of stamps...a swirling flourish, which I embossed in white and then colored in two shades of pink. I covered the elongated card with a soft diagonal striped paper and then matted the flourish with two shades of pink. I stamped "love" in a pink after popping up the flourish. It doesn't need ribbon or any extras. LESS is MORE!

I believe my card qualifies for the SimonSaysStamp challenge "Love is in the air" and the the SimonSaysStamp and Show challenge "emboss".

HERE GOES!!!

2011-02-08T22:38:00.005-06:00

I am attempting to enter some challenges tonight. I made one card in red, black and white for the Magnolia Bi-Monthly challenge. It also will fit the Just Magnolia Challenge of Anything Goes with Ribbon. I have lots and lots of older Tildas, and have decided to use them even though there are some really precious new ones I would like to get soon.

My card is pretty simple. I matted the black dotted paper with red and black. I added the row of Martha Stewarts dotted border along the opening of the card. The red panel was run through the Cuttlebug using the large rectangular die, and then I used the Swiss dots folder to give it texture. I matted it in black and stamped the Tilda on a white CS using Momento black ink, cut her out using the CB and my new Labels 16 Spellbinder die, and colored her with mostly Copics. I ran the ribbon on the black dotted paper layer and left long tails to tie later. The red panel is flat mounted and the Tilda is popped up on dimensional pop dots. I added the two red heart rhinestones, and some glossy accents on the hearts in her apron (which ran together a little! Boohoo!)

So best get this posted and logged in on the challenges mentioned. There are some nice prizes but it is a random drawing for the winner. Who knows! I might get lucky one of these days. Thanks for stopping by.

GETTING BETTER!

2011-02-05T16:33:00.005-06:00

No, I am not talking about my health! LOL! Although the hip is getting better. I was making reference to almost getting a card done on time for a challenge. SHEESH! I need to pay better attention to times. I've never been good with deadlines and such.

My card is a Penny Black image I planned to enter into the Penny Black challenge which I found out ended GMT on Friday. I wonder if they might like to see it anyway but of course not be in the random draw? I will need to try anyway. Well, I looked and of course it was closed. So I hope YOU enjoy my little creation! He is so darned cute!

Thia card is made with a flourish/dotted paper I just bought at Archivers...and it was the last sheet of it! I turned the sketch up and down since I was making a smaller card, and added the horizontal piece of Valentine paper. I used two sizes of Spellbinder plain circles to do the image, added some red satin ribbon, some red rhinestone hearts (I did not have any suitable flowers), and a small saying up in the upper right from Amuse stamps. I also covered the hearts on his body with Glossy Accents. Thanks for stopping by.

A DAY LATE

2011-02-04T08:39:00.014-06:00

I had finished this card several days ago but did not know the deadline for the Rainw Lady challenge and am a day late. I know I am not in the running for anything but I decided to post my "bear" card on their blog anyway. Thought you might like to see it too. I used a Penny Black image, colored with a variety of markers (Copics and Stampin Up) and I matted with several shades of pink card stock and crocheted my own little flowers. I used a sparkly brad in the center of both flowers. The very back panel was run through the Cuttlebug for some texture. I used a nice corner punch on the corners of the image panel and added some Martha Stewart punched leaves for my flowers. I would have crocheted some leaves but had neither green thread or white that I would have ink dyed. Guess I am going shopping! This makes a sweet Valentine, although not an obvious one. Thanks for stopping by.

ONLY REHAB PHOTO

2011-02-03T07:59:00.005-06:00

I know it isn't very interesting, but here are our grand daughters as Emma reads one of the two books she brought to share when they came to visit in rehab. We had eaten pizza for our supper down in the family area and were back in the room so I could get back in bed. Emma is in Kindergarten and learning so fast. Matti was more interested in my walker and the balloon bouquet and the baggie of chocolate kisses tied on the bottom as a weight. I also showed them my nifty bed and the different positions it could go for my comfort. I wore my Minnesota shirts all the time and every one knew we also have a house in MN. All in all, the rehab part was OK and gave me time to rest up. Here at the house I sleep in the front room for the "quiet". Jack has been sleeping with me most of the time. The day bed is lower to the floor and easier to get out of too.

HOW TO BEGIN

2011-01-23T15:20:00.010-06:00

I have not been on my blog in some time. I think I wrote the morning of Jan 7th before I went to the hospital for the hip replacement. I feel like I am starting over on so many things...walking, card making, cooking, and being part of my life here with Bill and the cats and our son's family... and not sure how to begin again. Maybe this is age related or maybe I lost some of my pizazz while in the hospital and under the influence of morphine and the surgeons knife for my hip replacement. What ever the cause, being away for 12 days really was a change and I guess I will need to get back into the swing of things slowly.

First, my sincere thanks and appreciation for all the cards and calls, and visits. It made the time away much easier. I appreciate all the prayers and love and care. It warms my heart to know you care.

Secondly, my rehab went quickly and the food was plain but I thought good and varied and nutritious and nothing wrong that a little salt and pepper couldn't fix. I was told I am recovering quickly and that it was time to face the reality of getting along at home. Bill has been wonderful with laundry needs, and bringing me little treats and fast food. Luckily my weight stayed about the same. I still want to lose another 5-10 lbs. I see the doctor Feb 3rd for my check up.

Bill has a problem with his hip/bottom right now and is basically bed ridden. So I am trying to get some food in him and help him as much as I can.. Not sure what it is (pulled muscle or hip fracture, other).But he can not walk or sit with out pain. He is using the mobility scooter in the condo and I am using the walker. What a pair we are. He sees the Walk In doctor this morning. Our son will take him over and that will be difficult for him to even get to the car, much less get in it. I am so glad our son is able to help.

Please pray for him and for whatever the condition is he has. We will have to get Home Care if he has to have surgery too.

UPDATE for Bill. Turned out that Bill has a pulled/torn/ inflamed hamstring muscle where it attaches to his hip. He has to stay off of it for a week and "baby" it. It has been over a week since he saw the doctor in ER, and he is still feeling it and can not do too much. I continue to slowly improve but get tired easily and can not sit for longer than an hour without needing to walk, or lie down. Naps are my fasvorite time of day and I can usually take one or two. : ) I see the doctor tomorrow and hope I get a good report.

I was able to make a Get Well card for my DIL's father when I first got home. He had a knee replaced on Friday and is having a hard time adjusting to hospital life. I think he plans on going home when they release him and it will be so difficult because they have so many stairs in their house.

My card uses a PSX Lemon botanical stamp (John's last name is lemon so I thought it as good as any.) I matted the image with green and yellow and distressed all the edges of all layers. I used my Cuttlebug folder with squares and dots for the yellow background, also matted in green. I colored the lemon image with a variety of markers, some Copics, and some Stampin Up. And I used Tim Holtz Distressed "Old Pages" ink over the edges and over the image to make it look vintage and old. I popped the image up and added the saying "a little note" under on the front. Inside it says "Hope you feel better soon!". I was not able to deliver it, but my DIL was going up and I thought she makes a cute mail lady.

Temps are COLD, COLD, COLD and winter seems long already. Spirits are high around here since the Packers beat the Chicago Bears and will be going to the Super Bowl. The Packers were a 6th seed which means they were pretty far down on the list of favorites, but who knows, they just might pull it off. They play the Pittsburg Steelers wno have won the Super Bowl 3 times and it is the Packers turn to win!

Hope your week is blessed and full of God's goodness and love. Thanks for stopping by.

STRANGE NIGHT

2011-01-07T03:32:00.006-06:00

One would think that facing a major surgery and going to bed at the normal hour would get a person some good sleep. NOPE! Here it is after 3:30am and I think I have only had maybe an hour. I have to get up (OOPS, I already am UP!) at 4:45, get my sweats, shoes and coat on, grab my bag and go to the hospital for a 5:30 check in. I think I will be ready! Maybe I will not need so much anesthesia because I will be tired. Heehee! So it has been a strange night so far.

My hubby Bill has been scanning in pictures from both our families. He has worked so hard at it, wanting to make a CD of all our pictures for the kids and grand kids to have. Here is one of my fave photos of me which is VERY VINTAGE. I think I was about 2 years old. Maybe some day I will make a card from it.

Thanks for stopping by. Don't forget to say a little prayer for me today.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL

2011-01-06T14:43:00.003-06:00

Here it is a month since I posted. YIKES! Must have had my head in the Christmas wrap! I HAVE been making cards, and I HAVE taken pictures of them, but I did not get them off the camera into my computer yet...so nothing much to share. AND you are going to have to wait a few weeks more.

I am going in for my hip replacement tomorrow, Jan 7th and not sure when I will get back to blogging. doing emails, or making cards. Guess I will be busy with other things. : )

I hope in the next few weeks you are blessed amazingly by our Father. I covet your prayers for a speedy recovery.

My best always for your happiness, health and prosperity. May God the giver of all things and the maker of all things shine His face upon you and give you His peace and joy for the coming year.

Love to all, Martha

BLUE CHRISTMAS CARD

2010-12-07T23:15:00.009-06:00

My last post was of my first ever Santa card, and this one is of my first all blue Christmas card. I even used blue ink for the stamping inside which says, "The Lord has come, let the world rejoice". Good words for all year long, in my opinion.

My card uses a smaller simple stamp of a dove holding an olive branch made by Stampendous 2005. I wanted the card to be CAS so the image was the focal point and not a lot of fluff, stitching or embellishments. I stamped it in Stampin Up Bordering Blue ink on a gray SU card stock. I had to hand cut the shape of the gray panel, and roughed the edges. The blue under the gray is cut with a Spellbinder 4 label die and embossed. The next panel down is a shiny steel blue CS which I ran through the Cuttlebug using the vine folder. I wrapped it with a blue ribbon that has a glitzy thread between the satin side and the sheer side. Makes it look like a present. I also used the Martha Stewart corner rounder which takes off a big bite! Last is a lighter blue paper with snowflakes scattered in the gray and steel blue. I added some Stickles to the snowflakes that show. The steel blue pearls are added in the corners. This has only the first two panels popped up. I added some white gel pen to the dove and covered it with Stickles to make it shine! It is relatively uncluttered compared to others, using simple shapes and lines. Thanks for stopping by.

Challenges:

MY FIRST SANTA CARD...EVER!

2010-12-05T15:51:00.017-06:00

Some people make lots of Santa cards for Christmas. I never have in the 4 years of card making under my belt. I like them, but just never have. I recently bought this vintage Santa on Ebay in Sept, I think, and loved the round design of it with the holly. So I have designed my first Santa card, and now my brain wants to try some more to see what I might create.

I first stamped the image in Versa Mark onto a white card stock. I heat embossed with black ZING ebp and colored the image with SU markers and a few Copics for shadows in the beard and hat. I used my Cuttlebug to make a red smooth circle mat, then a black inverted circle mat. I cut the Santa out by hand and adhered to the Nesties and popped those up onto the doily which had been distressed with a Tim Holtz ink, and some Stickles rubbed over the edges for some glitz. The background mat is black on the white base card, then a dark green hounds tooth from a Christmas stack. I again used my Cuttlebug and cut out and embossed the red and the holly pieces and adhered them on. I added some white snowy dots to the doily and also the four corners. The red satin bow was tied using my Bow Easy. It is kind of dark in color, but very traditional. What do you think? We will always remember our first, right?

Be sure to check back about 5 postings as I added a bunch today. Thanks for stopping by.

Challenges:
Timeless Flourishes Tuesday: doilies
Tip Top Tuesday: anything goes
Tuesday Taggers: Santa
ABC Christmas:Holly & Berries, Red & Green
Marks Finest Papers: Red & Green
Crafty Ann's: Christmas
Paper Players: Christmas
Inky Impressions: Christmas
2 Sisters: Sparkly Christmas
The Paper Variety: Tic Tac Toe Christmas ( die, card, holiday)

MY TRIO FOR VERVE WINTER RELEASE

2010-12-01T22:36:00.015-06:00

This is my first ever attempt at a "release challenge". I love the look of Verve stamps but I don't have any yet. I hope to rectify that problem really soon. Sorry for the occasional shadow from the overhead light. I am NOT a very good photographer, but you can get the idea of my projects.

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My TRIO begins with the little box on the upper right, that contains 3 tea bags in a Sugar Plum flavor. I wrote "You're TEA-rrific" on the little banner. I decorated the string on each tea bag with a piece of the plaid and a snowflake. The box I constructed with white CS, cut the plaid panels to fit, added the snowflakes with a rhinestone center on each, and put the banner across to help hold it closed. Inside I made a little card with the brand of tea, the flavor and the "caffeine free' info in case that was important and they wanted to find it again.

The plastic candy container was one of a set of 5 that I found at Hobby Lobby for $2.99...a really good deal in my book. What was cute about them was that they are a miniature of the big tubs with the flip over locks on the handles on the side. I made some peppermint bark (almond bark melted in the Microwave and crushed peppermint candy canes added and then spread out on a waxed paper covered cookie sheet. I chilled it and broke it into bite sized pieces.) I put a layer of red tissue with silver sparkle dots inside it to line the container. I made a cover of the dark green CS, added a row of the white Martha Stewart snowflake border on both outer edges, backed it with the plaid CS, and added my die cut sentiment and matted with the plaid in the next sized die. I wrote "MINT for you" to hint at the mint candy inside. On the front side, I put the small banner with "peppermint bark" so they would know for sure what was inside. I added the 3 snowflakes (also Martha Stewart snowflake punches) and a rhinestone in the center of them.

The card is the third item and pretty simple. I stamped a flourish in green over the plaid CS. I did that to all three projects. I matted the plaid with green, added the row of MS snowflakes using a border, added the "Merry Christmas" on the Die cut panel and matted with a green one the next size up. I added three MS snowflakes to the card. All the snowflakes on all three projects (except for the ones on the tea bags) were covered with the Martha Stewart "tinsel" glitter and it looks so much like snow. Love it! I made a red bow but decided it covered up too much and so chose not to use any ribbon. So that is my take on the "Trio Challenge" for the Verve Winter Release. Thanks for stopping by.

THANKSGIVING THANKS

2010-12-01T22:17:00.011-06:00

Often times we are invited places and for some reason we don't get to express our appreciation. We recently were included in our DIL's family Thanksgiving. The food was wonderful, the company fun to talk to and a good time was had by all. I appreciate all the work and prep Johna did getting everything ready and keeping everyone on track. I did express my appreciation as we left to both the hostess and host. but sent a card too.

This card was made from a Fall collection of glittered CS. I used the corner rounder on the upper left corner and the lower right corner, and I mirrored that in the sentiment panel. I used brown and red as the matting colors. I used a red/orange ribbon behind and Matti and Emma helped make the lady bugs and Emma stamped the inside. It was a pretty quick card. Thanks Johna!

ONE MORE FALL CARD

2010-12-01T21:58:00.008-06:00

Since I in live in the cold tundra of Minnesota (You can go back a few posts and see the snow we have already had!), there still are places in the US that have bare trees, warm weather, green grass, and alley cats on the picket fence. This one is for you.

I saw this image on ebay some time ago and had wanted it. Of course I did not manage to get it, and had to wait for the next, which was over a year coming. But I finally bid/won it and here is my card. I used my Water Color Wonder Crayons from Stampin Up, which I love. They are so easy to watercolor with.

I matted using a brick red (which has a dotted texture all ready on it) on the white base. a blue, and a black I used my new Martha Stewart Vintage Floral for punching the blue and black edges to the right. I drew a few extra leaves at the base of the picket fence to color in the brick color. The sun/yellow moon is a bright yellow...maybe Summer Sun.

The sentiment was cut out using a die and the Cuttlebug. I hand cut the black one behind it. The extra leaves are very small and hand drawn. I used some scraps of the brick red and some water colored scraps that were left from another project. I cut them out by hand and put some Glossy accents over each one to give them shine. I think they add to the fall feeling. Thanks for stopping by to see my latest projects.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BETH

2010-12-01T21:38:00.007-06:00

This card was made for my only daughter's BD just before Thanksgiving. She had come for a visit and I had to wait to mail it, so it got to her a couple of days late. (Sorry Beth. I didn't want you to see me working on it.) I really like this small flower stamp and thought it would look good in fall colors. With three flower panels, and "happy" there three times, it kind of goes together. I tried to carry out the colors of the flowers in the matting. I liked that beige print against the brights. The card was larger than most and so I had to make it an envelope to match out of the beige DP. If you enlarge the picture you can see the red and orange thin sheer ribbon that criss-crosses behind the images and sentiments. It adds another design element to tie all four rectangles together. I am happy with it. Thanks for stopping by.

MASCULINE THANK YOU

2010-12-01T21:28:00.005-06:00

I needed to say Thank You to my daughters BF who was in India this summer and shopped for a sari for me. He did a wonderful job of it. They tend to have bright, orangy colors with gold and I can't wear those colors successfully. He picked a dark shade of blue and another which is light blue. They both are gorgeous and I am thrilled with them. Now to learn how to wear them and get the other parts for it too. Thanks, Sujan.

This card is pretty simple. I chose the dotted CS first for the subtle manly colors. I tore the edge and layered over the gray/blue shade on the bottom. I matted with black and added a golden/brown ribbon that has ridges on it. I used the Cuttlebug to cut out the die shaped saying, edged it with a medium blue cs, and popped it up over the ribbon. I had been playing with a corner punch from Martha Stewart. I cut the pieces and slipped under the saying above and below, kind of as a metal looking piece in black. I was happy with the results. Thanks for stopping by.

BARE TREES

2010-11-15T20:33:00.006-06:00

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

2010-11-14T09:23:00.008-06:00

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

2010-11-11T10:18:00.012-06:00

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

2010-11-10T23:32:00.007-06:00

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

2010-11-10T23:25:00.004-06:00

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

2010-11-10T23:09:00.006-06:00

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

2010-11-10T22:54:00.004-06:00

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

2010-11-10T22:04:00.011-06:00

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

2010-11-08T12:40:00.008-06:00

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

2010-11-07T22:32:00.010-06:00

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

2010-11-06T20:27:00.007-05:00

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

2010-11-03T23:18:00.012-05:00

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"

FRIENDSHIP BEARS

2010-10-26T15:12:00.002-05:00

I have loved this image ever since I saw it used by my good friend Davi. I finally found it on Ebay and here is my version.

The bears are colored with pencils, and cut out using a Nestie. I mounted on a larger blue Nestie of SU brocade blue, I tried to distress the inside of the panel in the nestie but it was too dark. Need to find out what others are using for that technique. I added the Basic Grey yellow with tiny blue dots, a back panel of blue and punched the corners. I added pink pearls in the corners. The sentiment is on the tinest of the Nestie set and I used three colors of ribbon just tied in a knot to bring all the colors together...pink, blue, and yellow. I like the softeness of this card. Thanks for coming to see me today.

HELLO MUMMY!

2010-10-26T14:54:00.005-05:00

I am not much into Halloween as it conflicts with my Christian beliefs. I think it is fun to have costume parties for kids and the genuine Harvest Festival parties celebrating God's bounty in the food we grow and share. I did let my kids Trick or Treat a little but only a few neighbor houses. and we never did Santa pictures or Easter bunny pictures. They are just not what we wanted to emphasize.

When I let my grand daughters pick out a stamp each in the sale stamps at Hobby Lobby, I did not restrict them. Matti chose the house silhouette stamp which you might have seen her card about 6 posts back. Emma chose a mummy stamp and hasn't had time to use it as she is in Kindergarten all day. I decided to use it to make a different card than Halloween. It says "Hello" on the outside and on the inside"Mummy", as a play on "mommy" for my mother.

I chose to make the card base look like it was wrapped as the mummy is and used strips of paper toweling to do it with. I distressed the edged with Tim Holtz "old paper" distressed ink and some black marker. I used two panels of card stock in two browns to mat the mummy panel but off set them. And I used SU Dusty Durango around the image to give it a little pop. The "Hello" is stamped on a small die cut piece. It is very different than my usual flowers and flourishes, but I think cute and "almost" Halloween looking. Thanks for stopping by.

VERVE VSWCMD5

2010-10-08T21:28:00.005-05:00

My card for this sketch uses a variety of papers and card stock. The matting is Basic Black from Hobby Lobby. the background print is Recollections "Purple Daze Flashback", the left lavender is from the same collection and is called "Grape", as is the swirling green called "Ride the Wave" (all from Michaels). The purple to the right is SU Lavender Lace as is the border around the circle. The floral image is from Stamp City and was fun to color. I used SU markers and used a light lavender to add flourishes to the circle before I stamped the sentiment which is a square peg type stamp but has no name on it. The "ribbon" is really a cord and unravels if you don't put tape around the end or tie a knot. I used the tape this time. The circle punches are from SU and all stitching is "faux". I added three pale green pearls which were a gift from Simon Says Stamp. Thanks Simon!

Thanks for stopping.

VERVE VSWCMD4

2010-10-08T21:01:00.006-05:00

This card uses a wreath for the circle. For the life of me, I could not figure out how to make such a perfect circle to put on this card. Thank you Julee for explaining it to me and others. That is part of the fun of learning from each other. The wreath is the PSX Sunflower wreath and I fussy cut around it leaving a little white on purpose. I used a dotted back ground in tan and a dull red from a pad of papers in my stash. I ran the raffia around for the ribbon since the wreath had a raffia bow in the image. I tied a raffia double bow to add dimension. The saying, "Autumn Blessings" is from Print Works. and the Bazzill Chocolate Truffle brown panel is punched with the Martha Stewart Simple Scallops. I added some tiny red rhinestones to some of the berries and under the saying. I did faux stitching around the background and sentiment panel.

Thanks for stopping .

VERVE VSWCMD3

2010-10-08T20:53:00.005-05:00

My card for this sketch uses the PSX sunflower botanical. I matted it with green and chocolate truffle brown. I covered the background with SU yoyo yellow and edged it with the Martha Stewart Swirling Lace punch and some small rhinestones. I used the SU 2002 sentiment, "It's Your Day" (the sentiment square is smaller than the sketch so the flower could be seen.) The ribbon is some from my stash.

VERVE VSWCMD2

2010-10-08T20:42:00.003-05:00

My card for this sketch uses a Stamps Happen stamp and is titled, "Bumble, the bee keeper". I colored it with SU markers but used Copics on the wings and face and skin. The sentiment is a Judith stamp I bought off of Ebay. I used the Martha Stewart Embossed Scalloped border and the SU Ballet Blue and SU black for my matting. The ribbon is from Walmart and has been discontinued at some Walmarts. it is my favorite ribbon because it is half sheer and half satin with a tiny shiny thread down the center. The ovals are Spellbinders Classic oval and Scalloped oval.

VERVE VSWCMD1

2010-10-08T20:29:00.005-05:00

My card for this Verve Release sketch uses shades of orange and some Bazzill Chocolate Truffle brown. I used the Cuttlebug folder of Autumn Words for the background and the EK Success "Swirls" punch. The vertical brown is textured using the Cuttlebug Herring Bone folder and I used the Swiss Dots folder on the light orange. Everything is matted with SU Dusty Durango (retired). The pumpkin image is a PSX from 2000 and colored with SU markers. The bling flourish is from Walmart and I used it instead of ribbon. I added the punched corner and rhinestone jewel to the upper right.

Thanks for stopping by.

OCTOBER IN WISCONSIN

2010-10-02T13:47:00.010-05:00

Here we are back in Oshkosh. Our family is such fun for us and keeps us moving! I attended swim lessons this Sat morning. Emma is doing well with her back float kicking. She has a strong kick! Matti is practicing the crawl stroke and becoming more accustomed to water in her face. The three little boys in her class love to splash and all the time, much to her frustration.

After swimming, we made a quick trip to Hobby Lobby and the girls each picked out two colors of embroidery thread. Emma has two stuffed animals who need some repairs to their faces and Matti just "needed" some thread "for her picture". Not sure what picture and what she intends to "create" but she likes to experiment with things. I let them each pick out a stamp in the discontinued ones. Emma chose a walking mummy with bandages all around except for eyes and some bandages are unraveling. Matti chose a 2x2 Stampabilities stamp with 2 haunted houses. She asked me if I have turquoise ink and I do, so we will have to see what she makes from that.

I am playing around with both of their stamps. I used the houses and created a night time scene with the houses in black over a sunset sky and I did the whole card in 10 min. I was experimenting directly onto the card front and it just happened. I will wait until Matti makes her card before posting mine, and will put them up together. Mine uses Cat's eye chalk inks for the sky, and I made a circle mask for the moon before inking the sky. I drew the clouds, the spider webs, and the spider. The rest is pretty simple.

Here is Matti's card, all bright and sunny just like she is! The only part I did for her was to ink up the stamp for her(so she didn't get it on her clothing!). She picked out all the colors and where she wanted to put them. The turquoise house is close to the pink one and she did not stamp it hard enough to get the full color, so I outlined it with her permission. We talked about the sidewalks and the punched flowers for the flower beds. She wanted some birds in the sky, so I showed her on another piece of paper how to make birds from the letter "M", but the points are rounded. Matti made hers more like "M's" but that is OK. She did it herself! I think for a 4 1/2 yr old, she did a super job and is learning so much. It is amazing that one stamp can be used to create such different looks. We had a blast being together and "stamping".

We are making ourselves available for picking up the girls to help the family when needed. Jodi is finishing up her second masters and so there is a time crunch some days since Matti is still in the daycare, and Emma is in kindergarten. We help when we can.

Thanks for stopping by.

UNUSUAL

2010-09-23T08:30:00.006-05:00

My backyard is about 1/3rd of an acre with about 10 mature oak trees (60-80 ft tall) A few are red oaks but they are mostly white oaks which are resistant to oak wilt disease. We used to have lots of elm of various sizes but now most of those have been cleared because of Dutch elm disease. And we had to remove a couple of oak trees in the 23 years here. We have a bit of the woods cleared with a cement curb edging around to separate the grass from the wooded parts. I have planted some hostas, shrubs, and a few Colorado blue spruce to give us a variety of trees , bushes and flowers. My neighbor says it looks like a park in my backyard.

This week was unusual as we had two sitings of birds not typically found in my backyard. For the last two weeks we have seen a large pilleated woodpecker on the suet feeder and in the tree. Now this bird is about 15" tall and has a red head. It is very wary of any movement and the picture, although not clear, at least will show you what he looks like. Bill snapped the photo from inside the family room and about 10 ft away from the window. We hope to get a better photo at some point. He has been here three times, so is hungry. I plan to leave the suet feeder full when we go over to WI soon, so there will be suet for all the woodpeckers and other birds who like it.

The next unusual bird I saw, is an eagle! YEP! and I've got the picture to prove it! I was up early that morning this last week, and as I sat in my recliner looking out the window, I thought I saw a stump or something large up in the tree about 100 ft from the house. It had been raining and all the trees were wet. Then this thing moved and I quickly grabbed my camera and snapped this one photo. I ran to get the binoculars and as I tried to get closer to the window, it must have seen me. Just those few seconds and it was gone. Bill enlarged and enhanced both of these photos so you too could share in the unusual birds from my back yard. Thanks for stopping by. M

THE FLYING FAMILY

2010-09-22T21:00:00.008-05:00

Our son and his family were able to come over for the long Labor Day weekend and it was such a blessing to have them here. Here is a photo of them at the airport. They all are so precious to us!

The airplane was pretty empty on the 40 min flight and each girl was able to sit by the window and look out side! Emma commented they even flew through a cloud! They also commented how small houses and trees look from the air. We all need to see the world through the wonderment and eyes of a child and hang onto those feelings.

They were able to make a couple of trips to the Mall of America where I rode the Log Ride with Matti and Emma rode with her daddy. That is their favorite. There was hardly anyone at the mall which made it nice...no lines! We also visited a Park Reserve that has some fun climbing towers. The girls spent a couple of hours playing there and we all had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (Jodi's fave!) after wards.

Thanks for coming over! You made the weekend wonderful for us! Love you to pieces!

COMPUTER GIRLS

2010-09-22T20:46:00.005-05:00

Give a girl a computer at any age and STAND BACK! They will learn at such a rate as to make your head spin! These two love their Mamaw's little pink computer aka. PINK. They have a few games on it that they really seem to enjoy (Winnie the Pooh Pre School game where they can paint pictures, and learn numbers, and counting and adding and subtracting and looking for pictures that are alike for Owls picture album, and more!) They also enjoy their moms iPad and Matti (on the right), has been sending me pictures she colors on her mom's iPad using a free app for drawing and coloring. I think we have another Jackson Pollock here. Matti seems to love color and applying it to where ever is available. They both love drawing on the driveway. Emma is in Kindergarten now all day, and Matti in the 4K program at the daycare where teachers from the school district come out and teach the 4 yr olds half a day. It is mandatory by state law and some children who are not in daycare get bussed to school for half a day. Should give them all the preparation for being successful students the rest of their school careers. GO EMMA! GO MATTI! We are so proud of you both!

AUTUMN IS HERE!

2010-09-22T19:34:00.009-05:00

Here in MN the temperatures are dropping at night, the leaves are beginning to turn and a few have landed on the grass! CRASH! Autumn is here! The peak color season will be here in a few weeks time and by the middle/end of Oct, most of the leaves will have fallen and blown around the yard and collect in particular spots and flower beds.

I have spent some of this month in MN cleaning out pantry cabinets and getting rid of items that are from the prehistoric age! LOL! And that is the kind of job that makes a mess first because you have to take everything out of both cabinets, and then move the canned goods over nearer the one by the stove/refrigerator. I have thrown away all the pasta, dry goods, and old items to make room for some of my craft items. YIPPEE! I love having a space for my stuff. I still have a couple of shelves above to clean out and need to wash down all the shelves and run the Tupperware through the dishwasher. I only use part of it and maybe need to get rid of some of it.

I did make a nice 6x6 Friendship card. I have included 3 photos here. I used a white card base, Basic Grey Indian Summer background., two panels of a rose pink shimmer CS, turquoise Bazzill "tropical", and a pretty piece of My Mind's Eye Bohemia "Bliss" "darling daughter" (this is a long name but has the rose, white and turquoise colors in the chrysanthemums on it). I just love this top CS. I stamped a 1994 Stampendous "Friendship blooms in loving hearts" in Baroque Burgundy from SU , cut it out with the Spellbinders Deckled rectangle die on my CB. I matted with the tropical turquoise and the rose shimmer. I added a piece of SU grosgrain in Baroque Burgundy ribbon down the middle and tied a small bow I made with my Bow-Easy. I added pink rhinestones in each outer corner. The third picture I took at an angle to show the two side panels popped up as is the saying panel. I'm liking it a lot!

I also have been coloring on some sunny sunflowers...one fromPSX (their botanical), a fall wreath also from PSX, and a THANKS with a row of sunflowers under it. These will be posted when I figure out how to use them for some Autumnal cards. Enjoy Autumn!

Thanks for stopping by. M

BOO! IT'S LUCI!

2010-09-14T23:07:00.010-05:00

I promised a reveal of Miss Luci under the comforter...and HERE she is!

Here in MN we don't have as many windows on the world for the cats to look out and dream. They all sit on top of the love seat in the family room at one time or another to watch the bird feeders. Jack makes a "cak, cak, cak" sound when he watches them. Here they all three are looking out the front storm door. Two cats from next door come over for breakfast occasionally and I give them a little and they will sit on the outside and look in longingly as our three look out longingly. Not sure what they would do if they were together. Mine do not have their front claws so not sure who would be aggressive and who would run and be passive. I'm thinking it would be three against one! LOL!

BACK IN MINNESOTA

2010-09-07T22:45:00.013-05:00

We are back after traveling the 5+ hours in our van with the three cats to get here. The cats do pretty well and usually settle down after the first hour or two. We bring along bins of my stamping stuff and I throw a big comforter over it all and they each find a place to sleep a little. We usually stop twice to stretch our legs and get a bite. We listen to audio mystery stories on the way and for us, the time passes quickly.

I have several pictures of the cats doing various things, and thought I could combine them in a posting since they are our "children". Here is our Mari cat in the vertical blinds on the window ledge at the condo in Oshkosh (I love those verticals for the cats because they can not damage them getting up on the ledge!). Our blinds hang free and the cats can get up there and get some rays even when they are closed. The ledge is about 6 inches so plenty of room.

Yes there is a cat under the comforter on the couch...can you guess which one? For some reason, Jack mainly but Luci sometimes likes to hide under there. Jack will sleep a while. Luci is usually just playing a little at Hide and Seek or her other favorite You Can't See Me! This is Luci. See the next posting for the reveal!

This is Jack on the girls daybed with their stuffed animals and soft pillows. He likes to be in that room with me as I am doing my crafting. The three of them provide us with such joy everyday. Even the work required to care for them is minimal compared to the joy we gain. They are just plain FUN! And make us laugh!

Thanks for stopping by...M

SUNFLOWERS

2010-09-02T16:04:00.008-05:00

Isn't GOD'S creation marvelous. Besides all the flowers in His garden for us to enjoy, he uses birds as planters. We have a sunflower feeder off the edge of our decking in Oshkosh. The birds must fly over to the edge of the deck and while trying to crack the seeds, drop a few. We have four beautiful sunflowers growing there. Makes me want to make a few cards with sunflower images. I just received about 5 different stamps with sunflowers, so will work on it. Here are a few of the pictures I took. They are taller than our grand daughter Matti who is 4 1/2 yrs. She liked the bee on the one the best. Look around you at the wonders He has made for us to know HE IS!

SECOND WEDDING CARD

2010-09-02T16:01:00.011-05:00

I was reading another persons blog about "square" cards. They require special envelopes and usually extra postage but can be soo pretty. I was wanting something white on white or near white and came up with this one as a wedding card.

My card base is white, the next layer is a wedding swirl print in echrue and I rounded the corners with my Creative Memories punch. The next layer is "punch around the block" with Martha Stewarts Deco Shell set. They tell you what size to make your pieces so as to match up the corner and border. The third layer is a solid echrue colored CS run through with my Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder and edged with a scallop. The center is an image of the word LOVE in block letters. I stamped it in Versa Mark on cream. I heat embossed it with white EP. I distressed the edges of the LOVE square with Tim Holtz "Pumice Stone" distress ink and then matted it with a thin layer of white CS. Love thatPumice Stone color! The larger flower is made by me...my first paper flower. Woohoo! I punched 5 flowers from the echrue CS using a 5 petal punch, spritzed them lightly with water and scrunched each layer up tightly into a spit ball. I let them dry over night, flattened them out a little, and punched a little hole in each. I layered them on top of each other and stuck a beige brad through the center. I then scrunched the center petals tightly and as I went down the stack, each lower one was a little more open. It was really easy and next time I will try it with a scalloped circle. The other flowers were just small flower punches. I tried some greenery but decided I liked the little blue flowers instead. I may add leaves also later. I added the little white ribbon because that corner looked bare. Thanks for stopping by.

CARD FOR SIS

2010-09-02T15:38:00.006-05:00

Emma had her adenoids removed and tubes put in just before school. We took care of Matti while Emma was having the surgery and while she was recovering in the afternoon. All went perfectly.

Matti and I decided Emma needed a "get well" card and spent most of the morning making it. When I do cards with the girls, I make it important to include them in every phase of it that I can. I collected some stamps for the front image and Matti chose the ice cream sundae and the two ice cream cones. I also picked out some appropriate sayings, and Matti asked me what each one said and she picked "Hope You Feel better soon" for the inside. She picked the colors to color the image and did that and she also chose the colors for the matting. She wanted to punch too (she loves punching) and decided on the pop-up butterflies and every other one is punched out. She added them to the inside. She did all the pop dotting and Stickles to give it some bling. She wrote her name inside and I helped guide her hand to do the front writing ("Have a treat"). We did not have the right stamp for it so just wrote it. Matti did all the adhesive runner and

wanted the ribbon and put it down with double stick tape. There was one little booboo with the Stickles, so I just added all the dots of Stickles to confuse the eye. Was I successful? I think for a four year old with some guidance, she did a marvelous job.

AUG ANNIVERSAY

2010-09-02T15:25:00.004-05:00

Jodi and Bill had their 8th wedding anniversary Aug 9 and this is the card I made for them. They took their girls and had a family vacation at the Wisconsin Dells for a few days. I made a bag of Chex snack mix with lots of pecans for them to take along.

My card uses some pink razzleberry card stock for the solid with some light pink with loopy flowers. I used a spellbinder Nestie to cut out the white and the mat of the razzleberry. The "Celebrating 8" stamped in Versa Mark was embossed in hot pink. Also on the inside I added "wonderful years" and stamped in hot pink. The daisies with pink centers are from a roll from the fabric dept at Wal-Mart and the leaves are a Martha Stewart punch. The bottom punched border on the front is also a Martha Stewart punch called "Quilted" and is a very pretty edge. I also used the corner punch of this set on the corners of the pink daisy paper but they might be a little hard to see. I needed more light to showcase this card.

Thanks for stopping by and letting me share.

WEDDING CARDS

2010-09-02T15:10:00.005-05:00

I recently bought the cutest Penny Black stamp on Ebay titled "With this Ring". It has the cute boy groom in a tux and top hat holding a sparkling ring behind his back and he is facing the girl bride whose hair is up with roses and a short lace veil, and her dress is old fashioned with swags and roses and eyelet peeking from beneath the skirt. She holds her bouquet behind her and is wearing her Mary Janes.

I decided to make this into a non-traditional wedding card, using my favorite Stampin Up color of Brilliant Blue. His tux is colored with Copic gray and I used the SU Brilliant blue as accents on his tux and the vest, I colored the ring and added Stickles to sparkle it up some.

She is a vision in her white dress with rose colored roses, green leaves, and a pink swag above the blue ruffle, along her skirt with more roses. I used my SU Designer Paper in Brilliant Blue for the background, but used the small print side. I added Stickles randomly to the dots in the back ground, added a Martha Stewart eyelet lace border and matted in the solid Brilliant Blue. I added a small simple ribbon tied in a knot. Next time I do this image, I want to use pastels and off white for a different look. Makes me want to renew my vows and have a pretty wedding dress again. Thanks for stopping by.

SYMPATHY CARDS

2010-09-02T14:11:00.010-05:00

No one likes to have to buy (or make in my case) a sympathy card because it means someone has passed from this life and there is loss and sadness for those left behind.

Recently we received a call from our friend Betty Martin. We used to park our RV next to them and across the street from her brother in Green Gate retirement park down in Mission TX every winter. Well, Betty's SIL, brother John's wife died unexpectedly. So I began my process of making a card for him.

I have several oval stamps of light houses and I thought the image would work. I also had a new Fiskars punch and it looks like scrolly waves and I wanted to use that. I decided on several blue papers and card stocks. I also wanted the card to be masculine looking. My style tends to be more to the feminine side. So below are my two first attempts but they were too feminine to me. The third card was much more simple and I think hit the mark better. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the card I sent (duh!) but will describe it. So you will need to put on your imagination caps and try to visualize it. I used the same papers and card stock in all three so I think you will get the idea.

Sympathy card #1...Stampendous light house stamp. Stampin Up Brilliant Blue solid card stock, and DSP (designer paper prints in paisley and the small print down the left side.) The white/blue background looks like graph paper but a brighter blue. I used the Spellbinder classic oval and scalloped oval Nestie for the image which is popped up. The horizontal punch was the Fiskars "swirl" which I just love and the vertical punch on the edge is the SU scalloped border. The image did not quite fill the oval but I used my artistic drawing abilities and filled in the edges and colored with SU markers. You can see the faint line but it isn't too bad for my first attempt at doing that. Lastly I added red brads to each of the corners. The sentiment is from a clear set I have and was stamped in Stampin Up Brilliant Blue ink

Sympathy card #2...Stampendous light house image cut out using the classic oval Nestie from Spellbinder, and matted with the scalloped oval Nestie. I turned this one sideways and matted the whole with SU Brilliant Blue solid CS, and did faux stitching around the white check. The rest is pretty much the same although the lighthouse is a different image and colored with SU markers as was the other one. The red sheer ribbon was added for softness.

Sympathy card #3...Was a vertical card, matted in SU Brilliant Blue, with the whole front being a piece of the blue graph paper. I had two 1/2 strips of the small print from the Brilliant Blue DSP and I criss crossed them like a "cross" shape on the front. I popped the same image from the second card onto a scalloped mat and colored this light house with colored pencils. It gave a much softer look to the whole card. I did not add ribbon, or brads or punched edges and kept it plain and I put the sentiment inside in Brilliant Blue. I received a nice THANK YOU from John so know he appreciated. my efforts. I may at some point make another like it just to add a picture here. "A picture is worth a thousand words" Right? Thanks for stopping by.

AUGUST MAKE AND TAKE

2010-09-01T21:00:00.014-05:00

Matti, Emma and I met grandma Susan at Archivers at 10am on Aug 7th. We began the first project with Susan helping me to help Emma and Matti do the projects. The girls stood on the metal shopping baskets which gave them a boost since the counters are tall. As I said in another posting, this was Grandma Susan's first time in Archivers and first time to make cards, etc. It was a lot of fun for me to share this activity with her and the girls.

The first project was a card made out of a scalloped bi-fold card in white. The demonstrator had cut the card in half to make the base and then circles out in orange with a special cutter and we punched a flower shape out (Isn't that the cutest flower with the circles all around it!), stamped THANK YOU in Versa Mark and embossed in black. We adhered the half orange circle onto the half card and added a rhinestone in the center of the flower. Inside we added a strip of a flower print paper and tied a length of twine around the card. The girls did the stamping, adhesive, rhinestone, and we did any cutting and the heating of the embossing powder. After the girls made their project, Susan and I made one for ourselves and the girls were very patient watching and waiting and seemed to enjoy us making our own just as much. They also wanted to "help" us since they had already made one, LOL! Soo cute they are and amazing!

The second project was a 3x3 card with hot pink as a base, black matting, and topped with white run through a texture folder. We also used the Big Chomper to cut the corners of the white square. We stamped a lamp image in black, and then on a separate piece of card stock stamped it again with Versa Mark and embossed the lamp shade only with hot pink powder. The THANK YOU is embossed in black and mine is crooked. Makes it unique I am told. LOL! It has a rhinestone jewel at the top of the shade which is popped up. Cute mini card and fun. I will need to make a bunch of these using my smaller stamps.

Lastly we made an (ATC ) Artist Trading Card which are about the size of credit cards. First we put white paint on the flourishes and used both ends for a different look. All the stamps are Tim Holtz Urban Chic clear set. I used a coupon to get mine as they are pricey. Then we used two colors of Tim Holtz Distress inks in Broken glass (a turquoise color) and pumice stone (a grey/tan color). We learned a new technique for using the pads to make circles with the ink off the white CS and then slowly roll onto it. The had a silicon mat to work on and the ink and paints and glue and adhesives just don't stick. It is really great. Anyway, with this technique, you don't get straight lines of ink doing it this way. It looks more like smoke or whips of color and they are blended better. The white paint flourishes resisted the ink some and we were able to wipe off extra from them to make them show through the mist of the ink. We stamped the sentiment in black, butterflies in turquoise and Stickled them. We tied thin twine around twice and tied a bow. It was really pretty when done and I bought the Tim Holtz stamp set, inks, and such to recreate it on a card sometime soon. I really like this sentiment and this set has another and 11 stamps in all.

Our lunch at Perkins was really pancakes for the girls and I had a senior omelet and Susan had a sandwich. Here is the picture of Grandma Susan and the girls. We had a really great time together and plan to do it again. (More cards to come of my own designs in the postings after this. ) Thanks for stopping in to let me share this activity with you. I believe it is important to teach the next generation about these life skills. Everyone is an artist and needs to be nurtured at a young age to feel comfortable about expressing themselves artistically. GOD is the creator and we are created in GOD's image. We need to make something...make dinner, make pictures and cards, make clothing, make a garden and grow food, etc. From this our hearts can sing a song of joy.

TWO MONTHS LATER....

2010-09-01T20:17:00.008-05:00

WOW, it has been almost two months since I posted! No, I was not on an extended vacation in the Amazon Jungle with no internet service! No, I have not been institutionalized although there may be those who might like for me to be! I have just been busy living each day, one at a time.

For a quick recap...
My week with Mom for her birthday was special. She is such a wonderful person. I took my iPad along and was able to do emails and Ebay using the ATT service we bought for a month just for that purpose. I also took our Disney movie "The Princess and the Frog" and she enjoyed that. I had transportation to and from the air port via a friend and one of Mom's neighbor's. Saved me $180 total and I am very appreciative.

Our son and family had been here for the 4th of July. Our daughter Beth could not come and visit, but she sent the girls chef aprons and hats and so I have included a couple of pictures of them dressed for "cookin" "! They are so much fun. Emma lost her first baby tooth and the tooth fairy brought her some money She is saving for her own iPad. Matti is holding her dad's soda as they are preparing to leave after the holiday.

We headed back to Oshkosh about July 20th. When we are there, it is less structured and we are more retired. We shared several meals with our son's family, sometimes at their home, and sometimes at the condo. August 7th I met with Jodi's step mother at Archivers with Matti and Emma, and we made three projects free. The girls spent an hour waiting in line and doing each project at the free Make and Take. They did so wonderfully and were so patient. Susan had never done card making and helped so much. After wards, we took the girls to lunch at Perkins and I took a picture of Susan and the girls and put it with the posting of the projects. We were out for about 5 hours and the girls were just super the whole time. Matti fell asleep in the car on the way home. I will post their projects in the next posting.

The next day was the condo associational annual meeting and cook out. We met on the double driveway 2 doors over from us, and although it was hot, Bill and I sat in the shade of the garage and ate our brats and burgers. Lots of good food there and two hours of conversation and meeting our neighbors.

We headed back to MN about the 25th. and have been taking care of a couple of doctors appointments. Bill picked up another mobility scooter with a ramp for the back of the van. He plans to sell the one he got this summer as this one is newer and better. He used one for riding around EAA airshow in Oshkosh. He doesn't have the stamina for walking around for hours anymore. He loves having conveniences and gadgets.

I have made some cards the past few months and will show them in postings after this. Thanks for stopping by.

MORE FATHER"S DAY PHOTOS

2010-06-21T16:43:00.005-05:00

I am not a great computer person. I admit it. I tried to add lots of pictures to the post about Father's Day and it just would not keep them in the post. So I am making a second post with the remainder of the pictures which I felt were worth sharing. I haven't learned how to do my writing as captions underneath the photos yet. Maybe someday! Thanks for stopping by.