FRIENDS

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

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

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

Ya'll come back 'gin! Ya hear!

CHRISTMAS IN JULY

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

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

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

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

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

Hope you enjoy my card and will come visit again.

THREE WEEKS LATER

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

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

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

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

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

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

God bless ...till next time.

SYMPATHY

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

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

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

GRAND DAUGHTERS

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






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









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

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

90 YEARS

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

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

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

ABOUT TO GIVE UP

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

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

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

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

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