Show and Tell

the Lord's sanctuary... and... a banner hello

Today is Wednesday, February 1. The first day in my new life of leisure. :)

Yesterday was my last day of work. I loved my job, but I also like staying at home so I don't expect this to be a traumatic transition for me. So far today I've gone to Curves and a little later went on a walk with Ken. I'm not doing a full Curves workout yet, but I'm doing a little bit more each day so that's good. And today Ken decided that we should increase the amount of walking we're doing — so instead of one mile, we did a mile and a half. Whew! We plan on doing another walk later today if it hasn't started raining.

The preschool staff has always been so good to me. I began working there as a teacher in 1995 and became director in 1998. So I've been there for a pretty long time. I had asked the staff not to do anything for me... I really don't like the focus on me, but I knew that they would do something anyway. And, I came to realize that it's really not all about me... it's about other people who need to have a bit of closure and a chance to say goodbye. And when you look at it that way, it makes having all the focus on you bearable. (At least, it does for me.)

So, the staff had a really nice breakfast in my honor on Monday morning. And they gave me a very thoughtful gift — a small scrapbook that included pages with handwritten notes from each of them mixed in with some Bible verses and inspirational quotes. A real treasure.

 They also gave me a folder chockful of cash that they said we were to use on our travels (not on stamping supplies... haha... they know me so well!).

They had a bouquet of flowers on the breakfast table that they gave to me to take home.

 And the church sent a beautiful bouquet of spring flowers... tulips, irises, lilies, daisies, etc. And pussy willows! I just love the fuzzy texture they add to an arrangement.

A couple of the preschool staff members are in the stamp club that I'm a part of. In fact, I think we can blame my whole obsession with stamping on them. :) Anyway, they embellished a picture frame and included a staff photo from the fall of 2010.

Such a precious group of ladies. (I'll treasure it, Sheri & Kathy!) 

 

Well, now let's get into some scripture.

Psalm 26:8

"I love your sanctuary, Lord, the place where your glorious presence dwells."

I do love the Lord's sanctuary. I love going to church... singing... hearing the Word of God taught... visiting with people I meet there. I've heard people say things like, "I don't need to go to church... I can worship God anywhere." That may be true, but there is definitely something to be said for living life in a community of believers. (Um... that doesn't mean a commune... it just means living your life associated with people who believe in God and live like it.) If you're a Christian, I believe your closest friends should also be Christians. But you don't want to completely cut yourself off from non-believers because then how will they learn about the hope you have inside of you? The hope that Jesus offers?

And, because I'm talking a little bit about church, I snapped the photo below during worship last Sunday morning.

 Is there anything more precious than seeing people's hands lifted in praise to the Lord? Hands of all ages. Hands of all colors. Oh, how I love that! 

 

I've been doing a lot of Valentine cards lately. Today let's depart from that for a moment. This is just your basic "hey, how ya doin'" type of card.

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Surely you recognize this sketch since I've been using it a lot lately. :) And I think those birds are cute, cute, cute. They're rub-ons that I ordered from Emma's. (Just in case you need some, too.) 

AND TELL:  stamp is from Papertrey Ink (Little Bitty Bird); cardstock is PTI (Vintage Cream); patterned paper is Basic Grey (Life of the Party: House Party); ink is Stampin' Up (Blushing Bride); also used Studio Calico Rub-Ons (Tweets - Woodgrain).

Just a few more photos from our trip to the beach.

On our last day, we got up early to walk on the beach and watch the sunrise. Only it was cloudy so there was no glorious sunrise. Instead we walked on the beach for awhile in the misty rain and went back to the condo.

Not too many people out at dawn on a misty Sunday morning at the beach.

We planned to eat breakfast on our way out of town, but we were too slow getting started. So instead we had lunch at a place that our friends had recommended to us. 

And after lunch we drove the 45 or so minutes to Kenneth's parents' house.

They have a lovely home in the country about an hour in from the coast and about 3 hours from our home in Charlotte. It was so fun to spend some time with them, see their place, and eat a delicious dessert served by Kenneth's mom. If I'd been a little more with it I would've taken pictures while we were at their house. Oh, well. (Thanks for hospitality, Eddie & Jackie!)

I guess that will be it for today. And that will be it for our trip to the beach, too. Hopefully, we'll get to go again sometime. It's just so peaceful at the beach. Especially in the winter when there aren't that many people there.

Thanks so much for stopping by my little blog today. Hopefully I'll be back again tomorrow, but stamp club is on Saturday and I haven't started my project yet. In fact, I haven't even decided what I'm doing! And I'm the hostess, so I'm providing the food. I've kind of a lot to do in the next couple of days. But, I'll try to get back. Thanks again for visiting. I hope to "see you" again soon. Hugs to you!

Life & Healing... and... You've Been So Kind

Today is Tuesday, January 24. So far today I've been to work and to Curves. And I've read a couple chapters in a book that had been recommended to me several times. Have you read "The Hunger Games"? That is what I'm reading and it's the first book that I've read in a long, long time. And since it's a trilogy, I will probably need to read the other two also. I wasn't sure that I could sustain attention long enough to read a book, but it hasn't been as hard as I thought. I'm much slower at reading than I used to be, but I think I'm retaining the story pretty well and that's encouraging. (If you've read the book, don't give anything away... I still have about 100 pages to go. :)  )

I told you yesterday that we went to the beach last weekend. We had hoped to visit with some friends (Sheila and Jimmy) while we were there. They used to live near us, but call Wilmington, NC home now. Unfortunately, they were going to be out of town for the weekend, so we'll have to catch them next time.

But, I wanted to show you a sweet present that I got from Sheila around Christmastime.

... this sweet pewter shell-shaped dish that was filled with real seashells. Shells Sheila wrote that she had picked up on the beach as she was praying for me. How sweet is that? What an incredibly thoughtful and meaningful gift.

I placed the dish full of shells on the bookcases in the living room... in front of the oil painting that we had one of our former preschool dads paint of our two children. My Oregon friends might recognize the coastline in the painting. It would be nice if my memory was working well, but it's somewhere around Newport, I believe. Maybe closer to Depot Bay. Anyway, I gave the artist several photos to work from: pictures of the Oregon coastline, of the clothes I wanted the kids to be wearing, and of our kids when Britt was about 5, I think, and Ian, 3 (although, when the picture was painted they were teenagers). The actual photo that he painted the kids from was taken in Florida. They were wearing swimming suits and looking out at the Atlantic Ocean. I think Greg did a great job melding all those photos together to make a painting that turned out even better than I could've hoped for. It is definitely one of my prized possessions. (If you're interested, you can learn more about Greg and contact him here. He's fabulous!)  

 

 

Here is the scripture I chose for today.

Proverbs 4:20-22

"My child, pay attention to what I say. Listen carefully to my words. Don't lose sight of them. Let them penetrate deep into your heart, for they bring life to those who find them, and healing to their whole body."

OK, I know. More verses talking about healing. I can't help it. It's kind of a big theme for me right now.

When I was in the hospital nearly 6 months ago, I wished that I had spent more time memorizing Bible passages. I would've liked to have been able to comfort myself with the Word of God. It seems like all of the verses I know are attached to songs... which is good, but I'd really like to commit some entire passages to memory. Maybe my mind is working well enough now to do that. I'm sure it'll be slow-going, but I think I'm up for the challenge. :) What verses or passages are particularly meaningful to you? 

 

 

In my quest to use all the patterned paper that I can't seem to stop buying, I came up with this thank you card. Basically patterned paper, a stamp, and embossing powder — with a bit of ribbon for good measure. (This paper, like what I used yesterday, was purchased from Emma's Paperie — my favorite online paper source.)

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I really like the look of embossing powder, but I don't use it often. It's just too messy. But this Zing embossing powder did really well. It didn't scatter all over and it didn't leave a lot of extra specks. So — maybe my problem was that I was using old and/or cheap embossing powder. I think I may have to throw out most of what I have and get some new. And that'll be kinda fun, I think.

AND TELL:  stamps are from Papertrey Ink (a big thank you); cardstock is PTI (Vintage Cream); patterned paper is Sassafras Lass (sweetly smitten: floral fields); ink is Versamark; embossing powder is Zing (aqua); ribbon is PTI (1/4" white silk).

Tomorrow is another treatment day so I'll appreciate your prayers. Well, I always appreciate your prayers... they just seem so necessary sometimes. The last couple times the chemo has pretty well wiped me out — and if that's important to getting better, well, bring it on. But I'm pretty much a wimp so if the results are the same, I prefer the easy, "feel good" route. :)

That is enough for now. Thank you so much for stopping by and for listening to my ramblings. I really appreciate you — and your prayers! Sending you big, big hugs!

My Redeemer... and... Sending a Big Thank You

Today is Monday, January 23. I didn't tell you, but Ken & I went out of town for the weekend... to the beach. What fun that was!

I'll tell you more about that in a few days. Because today I want to talk a little bit about my brother-in-law, Michael. I've written about him before. He's such an inspiration to me. A now retired lawyer. A woodworker. A classical guitar player. A husband. A dad. A brother, uncle, etc. etc. etc. A guy full of funny stories. An encourager to those of us living with cancer... because he's living with cancer, too.

Mike and Lynne (Ken's sister) were at our house for Thanksgiving — for the third year in a row. And we sure loved it. But Mike always brings us some great item that he has wrought with his own hands. And I always show it to you, but this year I somehow didn't get that done. Until now.

That's the box that Michael made. And he told me that it has no stain on it. That's the color of the wood. Something from Brazil, I think he said. Isn't it beautiful?  

And that's the inside. It has four dividers that are perfect for earrings and what-not. It's great to have such talent in the family. :) (If you're interested, you can check out Mike & Lynne's blog here. It's partly their cancer journey, partly Mike's woodworking, partly Lynne's teaching, and partly family stuff — or whatever else happens to be on their minds.)

I thought I'd show you one more thing that was sent to us by Lynne & Mike.

 Look at his little dog flower arrangement. The puppy was fashioned from carnations and, maybe you can see, he's wearing wire-rimmed glasses and a little Santa hat. Quite cute and festive, isn't he?

 

Here is a biblical reminder for you today.

Psalm 19:14

"May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer."

My desire is that the way I live my life and that the things I say would be pleasing to the Lord. Actually, that is more than my desire. It's my prayer. And has been my prayer for quite a few years now. When the Lord looks at my life, I want Him to feel happy. I try to watch the things I say for several reasons... I don't want to grieve the Lord, I don't want to hurt anyone, and (a really selfish and unspiritual reason) I hate having to apologize. I find that it's better to live a life of prayer and as I do that the Lord will transform my thinking and I am much more likely to live as He desires. 

 

I'm pretty good at making thank you cards. But not so good at sending them. This one I made to send to my brother-in-law Michael. Yep. The same guy who made me that useful and sturdy jewelry box. In November. Yes, that's how bad I am at getting thank you cards in the mail. Can we just say, "better late than never"? 

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I thought that all the woodgrain on this card would be appropriate for Mike since he is such a master woodworker. But I also love the combination of the woodgrain with the bright-ish red. Just makes the whole thing look a little more contemporary and a little less rustic. (Michael, thank you so much for the beautiful box... the official thank you card will be in the mail soon!) 

AND TELL:  stamps are from Papertrey Ink (a big thank you, Background Basics: Wood); cardstock is PTI (Vintage Cream); patterned paper is Sassasfras Lass (My Dearest: Woo + Woo); ink is Stampin' Up (Poppy Parade, Real Rust); also used PTI's Double-Ended Banners die.

Now it's time to get on to something else. As I was working on this card (and the next few that I'll share with you), I was reminded about an order that I placed from Emma's Paperie a couple months ago... that included this patterned paper.

I love ordering from Emma's.

They always package up my patterned paper order which helps to protect it and is kinda pretty besides. There's always a little gift tied on the top.

And, here's my Emma's purchase from back in November.

I've already used quite a bit of this paper — and intend to use a lot more in the coming weeks. I find it hard to resist all the beautiful patterned papers that are available now. But, I'm determined that if I buy them I'm going to use them. No more wasting money. If I buy it, I use it. Sounds like a great philosophy, doesn't it? Now, if I can just stick to it. :)

And that will be it for now. Thank you so much for stopping by. I appreciate you very much!

Confident Trust... and... One Blessing After Another

Today is Monday, November 14. I went to work this morning and, after a trip to Lowe's with Ken, plopped down on the couch to take a nap but instead got distracted by a sale at my favorite online scrapbooking store and filled my virtual cart with over $300 of patterned paper. Now I'm in the process of culling it down to about $30 worth. :) But, since tonight is the Papertrey Ink release and since I KNOW that I'm going to be spending a bit (ahem!) of money there I should probably just clear my Emma's Paperie cart and forget about it. We'll see what kind of self-control I have as the evening goes on. Emma's is having a 30% off sale and that's a little hard for me to resist. Not that I use a lot of patterned paper, but I sure do like to look at it! (hehe!)

Today was our quarterly birthday lunch at work. Three times a year (I know... that is not quarterly, but that's what it has always been called...), the staff — which has been divided into thirds for the occasion — brings a dish to share.

All the food is set up on a table in the preschool hallway for the staff to fill their plates buffet-style. It probably doesn't sound very special or fun, but it's a pretty big deal for us and, even though everyone has to return to their classrooms to eat, we all enjoy the change from the usual routine. And the chance to sample the cooking of our co-workers. :) Oh, and one of our teachers is a fabulous maker and decorator of cakes and her job is to bring a cake to each luncheon. It's always fun to see how she has decorated it. Of course, I was so intent on filling my plate that I forgot to take a photo of the cake. Oh, well... sorry. Just know that it looked and tasted really good. :)

Tomorrow is my second chemotherapy treatment and I'm quite looking forward to it. I felt so much better a couple days after the first one that I'm hoping to feel even better this time! We'll go in for a port check and probably some blood work around 9:00 in the morning, and then will spend — I suppose — the rest of the day in the infusion room where I'll be hooked up to an IV that will be pumping the Avastin and then the CPT-11 into me. It'll take most of the day, so I'm not sure that I'll be posting tomorrow. If I don't, you'll probably get an update from Ken. Or, maybe I'll post in the afternoon from the infusion room. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what the day brings. :)

 

For today's scripture we're back in the Psalms.

Psalm 112:1, 7

"Praise the Lord! How joyful are those who fear the Lord and delight in obeying his commands....They do not fear bad news; they confidently trust the Lord to care for them."

When you've had almost nothing but bad news medically it can be easy to become discouraged. I think that is why I choose not to look at any images of my brain tumor and am very careful about what I allow our medical personnel to reveal to me about their thoughts on my prognosis. To me, this is all in the Lord's hands. He may use the doctors and nurses, but any healing will come through Him. And I realize that healing takes many forms. I'm not living in a dream world. But I am trusting that the Lord will take care of me. I'm sure of it. :) And, in the meantime, I am also joyfully waiting to see how the Lord is working. Because, I know that He's at work through this situation. And it's a privilege to be on His side. (And to be sharing it all with you! You guys are the best!)

 

This is a card that I made several weeks ago for a friend from church.     

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At the time she was recovering from surgery and I wanted to do something to encourage her. She and her husband spent many years on the mission field, much of it at a school in Ecuador, and... well... you know that missionaries don't really have a lot of money to spare. Since Karen is an avid cardmaker, I thought that one way I could bless her would be to share some of my papercrafting abundance. Hopefully she enjoyed going through the big bag of blank cards, stickers, die cuts, and stamp pads. And, even more so, I hope she enjoys using them!  

AND TELL:  stamps are from Papertrey Ink (Half & Half, Beautiful Blessings); cardstock is PTI (Stampers Select White), patterned paper is from my stash; ink is PTI (True Black); also used one of the PTI Half & Half dies.

That is all for today. I really appreciate you stopping by for a visit... and I always love hearing from you. Thank you for keeping us in your prayers tomorrow as we have our second chemo session. Your prayers sustain us and buoy us and we're so appreciative of your support and your love. And, we send big hugs and lots of love your way, too. :)

 

2 Sketches 4 You, Try #1

Well, I don't know if there will be a try #2 or not — I do like this sketch — but just thought I'd set expectations high. :) This is for this week's sketch at 2S4Y:  Laura's 56.

 

 

 

 

 

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I pulled out the Sassafras Lass Cherry Delicious collection for this one. I purchased it from Emma's Paperie some time ago, but haven't used it much. I thought it would be perfect for this sketch.

AND TELL:  stamp is from Stampin' Up (Thank You Kindly); cardstock is SU (Ruby Red) and Papertrey Ink (Enchanted Evening); patterned papers and sticker are from the Sassafras Lass (Cherry Delicious collection); ink is PTI (Enchanted Evening); ribbon, button, and twine are PTI (Berry Sorbet grosgrain, Berry Sorbet, and Rustic Cream); also used Marvy scalloped circle punch (yellow one) and pinking shears to trim the ribbon ends.

Well, I took these pictures and started this blog entry five days ago, and — I'm happy to say — that I did find time to make another card for this sketch. I'll post it in a bit. Right now, I'm off to have a quick lunch and get some household things done. Hope you're having a great Saturday — thanks for stopping by for a bit!

Come, We That Love the Lord

Here is a card for the current Everything but the Kitchen Sink challenge; this time a sketch inspired by a display in my friend Kelley's stamp room. Great sketch, huh?

 

 

 

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As I was getting ready to post this, you know what I realized? No stamping! I didn't set out to do it that way. It just kinda happened. I guess that since I used the title of the song as the sentiment for the card I completely forgot about my stamps. Weird. But I do like the way it turned out. Uses lots of that doorprize paper from Emma's Paperie. And part of my sizable stash of old church choir music that I lucked into recently.

By the way, I positioned the bird on top of the scalloped circle in a specific way to send a little message. Can you see it? Here's how it reads with punctuation included... "Know God, Sweets."  So that's my message to you today. You can know God, Sweets. Read your Bible. Pray. Seek Him. And He will reveal Himself to you. You will know Him. There's nothing more precious. Come, we that Love the Lord. Let's praise Him for all He's done!  

AND TELL:  cardstock is from Stampin' Up (Confetti White); patterned paper is My Mind's Eye (Confetti collection); Stampin' Up's 1-1/4" circle punch, scallop circle punch, and 2-step bird punch, Papertrey Ink's large scallop border die, a green K&Co. rhinestone, and old sheet music.

Two days ago was a gorgeous Saturday with a high temperature in the 70's and beautiful Carolina blue sky. Today was mostly gray with scattered showers, wind, and a high that I don't think even reached 50. Brrrr.

But the grass is greening up, the trees are blooming, the birds are singing — and not just in my craft room. However, it does seem that I'm hopelessly caught up in a bird phase so I'm afraid you'll be seeing more in the coming days. Then I'll try to get a grip and put them away for awhile. Surely it's time to move on. Or fly on.

Thanks for coming by for a visit today. I so appreciate any time you spend here with me and love reading your comments. Hope to see you again soon!  

Singing Hello

Here's another bird card for you today. It was inspired by CPS 158 from Card Positioning Systems.

 

 

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It's a happy hello, don't you think? The leafy stem was threaded through the buttonholes. I thought that was kind of fun. Used more of that doorprize paper from Emma's Paperie. I bought these stamps from them, too — but that was last year. When the "birds" challenge was issued on the CARDS blog, I just pulled every birdie thing out that I could find and played and played and played (as you'll see in the coming days). 

AND TELL:  stamps are from Basic Grey (Birdie Trio, Hello); cardstock is Stampin' Up (Cool Caribbean, Confetti White) and Papertrey Ink (Berry Sorbet); patterned paper is My Mind's Eye (Confetti collection); ink is Stampin' Up (Green Galore, Summer Sun, Cool Caribbean, Basic Black); button is PTI (Aqua Mist); rhinestone is Kaiser (clear); also used Stampin' Up's Top Note die, old sheet music, and Two-Step Bird Punch (for leafy branch). 

Now for the other preschool leprechaun visit.

This guy apparently had smaller feet...

 
...because he walked through the paint after wielding that giant-sized brush to make a shamrock.

The kids were quite surprised when they came in from the playground and discovered that there had been a mischievous visitor...

 
... who had not only been in the green paint, but had also used green yarn to tie all their bags together.

A girl in another class (one that I didn't get any photos of because I had been the leprechaun in their room and nearly got caught in the act!) told me that she knew how the leprechauns got in the school. They had been in her car in the morning and hopped out when she got out, following her inside. 

As I was reflecting on the day I was thinking about how the kids had fallen into 3 camps on this whole leprechaun thing. There were the whole-hearted believers. They were the excited ones who followed the footprints to the doorway and threw it open to see if the little guy was hiding out there. There were others who intellectually knew that no leprechauns had been in the building, but got caught up in the excitement and the fun of it all — enjoying the pretending. Then there were those other kids. The realists. The practical ones. Like the girl in the class I showed yesterday who snatched up a footprint and shook it in the face of whoever was nearby saying, "This is just construction paper! Our teachers cut these out! There were no leprechauns in here!" I did notice that she didn't turn down the gold coins that the "leprechaun" had hidden in her lunchbox, though. :)

I've got a busy Saturday ahead of me, but am going to try to squeeze in a few minutes to post another card. Thanks so much for spending a few minutes here today. I really appreciate your visits and your comments! Have a fabulous weekend!   

Rejoice in the Lord Always

I've been on a bit of a bird kick this week. You can blame it on Paige over at the CARDS blog. Her challenge this week was to make cards with birds — but no owls. Since I'd already had a request to bring back the Merry Details bird, it was great timing.

Remember this little bird? I used it like crazy at Christmas time, but it's been neglected since then. Definitely time to bring it back with a springtime twist.

So, for the next few days you may get sick of birds. And of the paper I won from Emma's Paperie a couple weeks ago. I'm loving that paper so much that I haven't even broken out the new lines of paper that I bought from them. The colors are so cheerful — and truly so "me".

Birds, however, are not "me". I'll save that story for another day, though. 

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Contrary to what you may think, I can create a card without using a sketch. :)

AND TELL:  stamps are from Papertrey Ink (Blooming Button Bits) and Verve (Philippians 4:4); cardstock is Stampin' Up (Cool Caribbean) and PTI (white); patterned paper is My Mind's Eye (Confetti collection); ink is Stampin' Up (Green Galore) and PTI (True Black); dies are Stampin' Up (Little Leaves, Merry Details); ribbon is from Michaels; also used Stampin' Up Scallop Trim Border punch.

Thought I'd show a few pictures from preschool. Hope you don't mind.

While the 3 year olds were eating Green Eggs & Ham on St. Patrick's Day, leprechauns were wreaking havoc in the 4 year old classrooms.

 
What happened to their lunchboxes? That pesky leprechaun!

"Look! This is how he got in! Maybe he's outside this door!"

Once they found their lunchboxes, though, all was forgiven when upon opening them they found... 

 
GOLD!

And who doesn't need...

a little gold in his pocket?  

I'll save the other example of leprechaun mischief for another time — maybe tomorrow.

Thanks so much for stopping by for a visit. Hope to see you again soon!  

here to give you a lift

I had a few moments this afternoon to work on a card for the current sketch from Get Sketchy. The first time I saw the sketch with the arrow on it I thought, "You have got to be kidding. An arrow?" Now, I know I could have gotten more creative and done something other than an arrow (like this card where Angele positioned butterflies that led to the image sort of like the arrow — so clever). But I knew I had some punch-out cardstock arrows that I won from Emma's Paperie in their first birthday celebration last year. (I know. I won a prize this year AND I won a prize last year. I promise, I'd still love Emma's even if I hadn't won stuff from them... twice.) So, out the sheet of arrows came.

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Most of the arrows were too big for a card, but this one had potential. And just about the whole card — colors, image, sentiment — came from that arrow. The printed papers I used were all in my 2009 prize from Emma's. I usually don't do cards with so many layers, but the card really didn't look right without them so I broke down and pulled out the orange cardstock.

AND TELL:  stamps are from Papertrey Ink (Everyday Button Bits); cardstock is PTI (Vintage Cream, Orange Zest) and Stampin' Up (Old Olive); patterned paper is from Scenic Route; ink is PTI (Dark Chocolate, Orange Zest); also used a Marvy circle punch (the blue one).

It was very important to me to get yesterday's post and the ugly card away from the top of my blog — and now I need to keep up the pace to get it off the first page. I want it in my past! But, I'm pretty committed to showing it all — the good, the bad, and the ugly. (However, I must admit that I have been rethinking that commitment over the past day!)

That's it for today. Spring seems to have arrived here — and I'm so glad. The trees are beginning to bloom and the daffodils are up. Quite a lovely time of year.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Hope you've had a great day!

Some Days You Got It...

and some days you don't. This may be a don't kind of day for me. I decided to do my two Clean and Simple Stamping cards using more of my sweet giveaway items from Emma's Paperie. The first card is for FTL82. This one isn't too bad. I kind of like it even.

 

 

 

 

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Thank goodness tomorrow is a new day! You'll see why I say that when you see the next card. Perhaps my mojo will return by tomorrow.

AND TELL:  stamps are from Papertrey Ink (Blooming Button Bits); cardstock is PTI (Stampers Select White); printed paper is My Mind's Eye (Confetti collection); ink is Stampin' Up (Glorious Green) and PTI (Dark Chocolate); ribbon is Papertrey Ink (Sweet Blush swiss dot); crocheted flowers are from Offray; also used an EK Success large scallop border punch and pinking shears.

The next card is for FTL33. And I can't believe that I'm actually going to share this one. I should have scrapped it and started over.

 

 

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I'd like to say this card looks better in real life, but that's not the case. The original plan was to have only the flower outlines and the sentiment up there on the stamped portion. But there just wasn't enough interest. So I thought I'd sponge just a little color in the centers of the flowers. That went well until I got to my last stop: the bud at the top. Somehow I got a little heavy-handed and out of the lines on that one. Then in my efforts to even things up — well... it kept getting worse and then I decided I should just sponge over the whole thing. Blech. It may still end up being taken apart and punched into little shapes to be used elsewhere. At this point I'm not even sure that glitter can save it. :)

AND TELL:  stamps are Papertrey Ink (In Bloom, Big & Bold Wishes); cardstock is PTI (Stampers Select White); patterned paper is My Mind's Eye (Confetti collection); ink is PTI (Hibiscus Burst, True Black); ribbon is from Michaels; buckle is from the clearance bin at WalMart.

We had a good time last night as about 10 neighbor families gathered for pasta, salad, bread, and dessert. I'm all about sweets stuff, so I offered to contribute cookies — and decided that some spring-y looking iced sugar cookies would be just the thing. Shamrocks. Umbrellas. Flowers. I think they ended up looking a little garish, but they were quite popular with kids and adults alike. As I was making them it occured to me that everyone might not like sugar quite as much as I do, so I also made a smaller tray of flowers with just a small circle of icing in the center. But, you know what I found out? Everyone else around here must like as into sugar as I am! We left the party on the early side and the fully iced cookies were nearly gone, while the others hadn't been touched. Or maybe it had something to do with the fact that they sort of resembled fried eggs...  :)

Hope you had a great weekend! Thanks so much for stopping by. Hope to see you again soon!