Thanksgiving wishes

Here we are at Thanksgiving once again. Where has the year gone? I send greetings and good wishes to all of you and hope you have been blessed with much to be thankful for. If you are spending time with friends and family, enjoy your time together. If loved ones are missing from your table, know that I care about your losses and heaven's gain. Life is full of changes, good and bad, but God has promised peace, comfort and understanding.

This card is made with the new SU Inline colors, Crushed Curry and Soft Suede. I chose a gate fold card to show off the turkey stamp from the set Gifts from the Earth stamped in Soft Suede on Natural card stock sponged with Soft Suede and mounted on Crushed Curry. The leafy dsp is from the Autumn Meadows Collection. The designer paper and stamp set can be found in the SU Holiday Mini Catalog which holds many fabulous items which are available through Dec. 31st.

Hugs and blessings to all of you!

So Thankful !

It has been almost a year since I started this blog and I am so glad to start up again. The card above is another version of the With Graditude card I posted last year but with a slightly different version of the Alcohol-Ink Resist background. I chose this card because I have not made many cards in recent months except for Stampin'Up stamp camps at which I assist my upline more than come up with my own creations. I hope to get my mojo working again so that you will find my blog worth following again.

Almost a year ago my husband came down with a brutal case of Shingles. He was treated intensely for it with pain and nerve meds., steroid injections etc. He had an allergic reaction to something (never diagnosed) which caused a rash over his body that lasted two months. All of this certainly took a toll on both of us and while I am normally a patient person, I found this all very difficult to live with. My health suffered also in minor ways, but the summer months brought us both relief. Unfortuately, my cards have taken a back seat and I never seem to get around to creating. Then in August, Ed was diagnosed with prostate cancer and you know, the news didn't really upset either of us. I had remembered hearing about a treatment for prostate cancer used at Georgetown University Hospital Center so Ed investagated it on the internet, got the blessing of his urologist and we began the process of getting into the program. At 71, he was not happy about the traditional methods of combating the disease. Surgery was completely ruled out due to his age. He qualified for Georgetown's Cyber-Knife Radiation and found the very best doctors, care and expertise he could receive. We will and have recommended this to other men. Ed completed treatment October 23rd and will continue to have blood tests for the next year, but his oncologist says he is cancer free.

I thank all of you dear friends who have known about all of this and have kept us in prayer. It truly means a lot to us. Where would any of us be without the love and prayers of family and friends. God has been our steadfast friend and strength.

I will try to get back to visiting all of your blogs and will add posts to mine as I am able.

Blessings!

Becca is 16 today!

Today is my oldest granddaughter's 16th birthday and we have been celebrating since yesterday. Ed and I took the whole family to Clyde's Tower Oaks Lodge restaurant. For those of you living in the DC area, the Clyde's group is well known for excellent dining. This one is housed in a log lodge reminiscent of the Adirondack Mountains. There are several rooms decorated in various outdoor themes (ex. hunting, fishing, English hunt etc.), an interesting decor for sure. There were 9 of us with reservations for 5:30, the parking was already filled and lining both sides of the Preserve street. In addition to us there was my son Mark, his son C.J., daughter Sue, son-in-law Sam, their kids Ellie & Roman as well as their daughter Becca who was the birthday girl. We had a wonderful dinner, excellent food and service and a good time together. This was a priceless rare time when we can all be together.
The card I made for Becca was made for a Stamp Camp with my up-line Denise. We used Summer Sun, Tempting Turquoise, Passion Pink, Whisper White and black cardstock all SU. We also under-lined the SU Lattice die with designer paper and trimmed it with a button brad made with the dsp and shapes left from the die cut Lattice.
Today continues Becca's celebrating with a trip to Six Flags to see a favorite band, her new blackberry and other gifts from the family. She is also supposed to get her learner's permit in the next few weeks......Oh how I remember being 16, almost 50 yrs ago, having fun, doing things with friends...so tame by today's standards but with the same dreams of driving. My heart is so full of love for this very special child, my 1st grandchild whom I helped to care for for her first six years. She & her mom came to live with us when she was 2 1/2 so we became very close. I'll close by saying Happy, Happy Birthday Becca!

Post SU convention meeting & swap

I attended a Post Convention information sharing, swap and fun time that my up-line Denise held over the weekend. She was the only one who attended convention and had much to share with her up-line, in-lines and down-lines. Only 8 of us were able to be there, one coming all the way from West Point, NY to visit with those she met at last year's convention. Denise had notes prepared for us to go over, her convention swaps which were all terrific, cards for us to make, samples to show of her 'make & take' and a gift for each of us . We all brought food (of course!) and swaps to share. Seeing all the fabulous swaps she brought back gave us lots of great ideas. It's so much fun to see how each person makes such creative cards.
This card was my swap for the meeting. I was running out of time so I had to make a quick and easy card which this was except for a few smeared silver places where the ink wasn't quite dry. I had wanted to do silver embossing, but didn't want to clean up the mess before leaving for the evening. I love the new ornament punch that I had just gotten for the Holiday mini pre-order! I used it with Ruby Red cs and put one of the new Icicle Rub-ons in the middle accented with a clear rhinestone brad. (A note of warning about the silver rub-ons: if your hands are the least bit warm DO NOT rest them on any of the images while cutting etc. they came off on my hand...I'm sure that's my own fault, but they are too expensive to waste) I stamped the center ornament with the So Many Scallops stamp in Siver Metallic ink which I also used to accent the circle ornament with a new stamp from Serene Snowflakes (Mini catty)on Christmas Cocoa dsp also from the mini. I mounted the 2 punched ornaments with dimensionals and made the hangers with a siver ink pen. My base was Night of Navy cs.

We all had a great time sharing together, meeting a few new women and having a lots of laughs. Just goes to show that you are never too old for a Slumber Party and you never outgrow making new friends.

Sweet Stop Sketch with limited supplies!

Once again I combined challenges using the Sweet Stop Sketch for Saturday with the Limited Supplies challenge on SCS which called for using only colors that had food in the title. The sketch uses a long card so I used a Groovy Guava long note from SU pairing it with Barely Banana, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip and Very Vanilla. I chose the SNS set Chocoholic for the image and sentiment. The cake is marbled and glazed with Crystal Effects (which isn't picked up by my scanner) to make the icing shine.

Recent Challenges

Trying to catch up on my posting, so this first card is for three challenges on Splitcoast Stmapers. I combined the CAS25 sketch with the CAS26 stitching (faux or real) and the color challenge this week to use Certainly Celery, Blush Blossom and Close to Cocoa. The Blush cs is the case with paper ribbon trim from the Basic Grey Urban Prairie Collection print. I stamped the Happy Birthday from SU's So Many Scallops and punched it out with the scallop punch. I used a larger Marvy punch to mount it on and used the Close to Cocoa marker to make my faux stitching on the Celery cs. Another quick and easy card.


Last week's color challenge 229 on Splitcoast Stampers was to use Certainly Celery, Pixie Pink and Apricot Appeal. I found all these colors in this pretty print from Basic Grey's Urban Prairie Collection which made this card an easy one. A little scalloping edge trim for the ribbon and it was done. The sentiment in from SU's The Best is Yet set.

Congratulations Teresa!

Today's Featured Stamper on SCS is none other than my dear friend Teresa. The card I CASED was done in pink, so did mine in blue and used the other snowman image from SNSS Snow Friends designed by Korin Sutherland. I chose SU Night of Navy for the base, layering with Bashful Blue and dsp. I heat embossed the image in silver, colored the hat in Bashful Blue and used Dazzling Diamond glitter for snow. This didn't show up on my scanning as it does in real life. I found this ribbon from Oriental Trading in my stash deciding to use it because of it's shimmering qualities. The sentiment is stamped in Silver Encore ink which also was used to edge the Navy scallop layer. I used the CB Swirl folder to emboss the white panel.
Teresa, this has been your day, I hope you have enjoyed it!

My mojo was inspired by an apron!

Today's Inspiration Challenge on SCS is to be inspired by the aprons or other items on Heavenly Hostess so I chose Nouveau which is black velvet lace over fushia satin substituting Real Red cardstock instead of the fushia. Since I hadn't done the Monday Mojo 97 challenge yet I went with that sketch. I had a piece of black fillegree in my scrap folder so I knew it would be the black velvet overlay. I used SU Rub-ons for the sentiment & image and Silver Style Hodgepodge Hardware for accent. No stamps were used and only a little ink to make the dots.
I hope everyone has a good weekend. Blessings to all!

Circle of Friends Award from Becky

I am touched and honor to receive this Circle of Friends Award from my dear friend Becky It is she who inspires me with her devotion to God and her wonderful creativity.
I have the honor to pass this on to some of my friends although I cannot begin to list all the wonderful ladies I have met here and who I consider my friends. Even if your name is not listed you know who you are and can pick up this award also.
Ceal
Linda
Teresa
Ann
Jackie


To pick up the Circle of Friends Blog Award:

Cut and paste the award logo and use it on your own blog.
Nominate at least 5 other bloggers you feel have become part of your circle of friends.
Link to your nominees, within your blog post and include these instructions on how to pick up the award in your blog post.
To show your appreciation to the person who gave you the award, link back to their blog. Finally, comment on the recipient’s blogs, to let them know they've received the award.

Christmas in July challenges

I am combining the SNSS Christmas in July challenge with Korin Sutherlands' sketch from the Sweet Stop challenge for the week of July 25th. I chose the SNSS set called Christmas Poinsettias designed by Chris Dickinson.
y card stock is SU Riding Hood Red as is the ink. My patterned paper is from the Basic Grey Wassail collection, scallop and oval punches are SU and Stickles for trim and sparkle. I also cut out the wreath and mounted it on the dark red layer for more emphasis. It's hard to believe we are in the second half of yet another year. While I am not at all ready to think about cold weather and the Holidays, I guess it doesn't hurt to get creative juices flowing to think about Christmas cards. This is my 2nd one in a week, but I still can't get into the mood to make them yet...Thanks for looking and I hope you like me are enjoying wearing summer clothes and thinking summer thoughts!