Do you ever wonder?

Sometimes do you ever question yourself, about the time you spend on making cards and think, that the time you spent probably goes unnoticed? Sometimes, I think that, and I probably get more enjoyment out of creating it, then the recipient does receiving it. But then things like this happens.

I live in a rural little town, not much crime, a very safe community. Then out of no where, it is your little community on the news. This is an excerpt from an email that I got from my 8 year old granddaughter last night.

"Grandma did you hear about that 8 year old girl that got shot 3 times? Well she was my best friend, Her dad did too, and he was already in a wealchair. Can you make her a card and if you do I will give it to her. Please pray for her, OK?"

The fact that this even happen, had already saddened our community, and then when my granddaughter made this simple request of me, it brought some things into perspective. Unknowing to me, my granddaughter appreciates the time it takes me to make her special cards, for special occasions. And, even more, I am so proud that she realizes the power of prayer. It breaks my heart to know, that these children, have to deal with these things at such a young age. So please take a moment to pray for this young child, her dad, the law enforcement officers, that were also injured and also the family and friends of all involved.

I stayed up past my bedtime last night completing this simple little card, so excuse the flaws and such. I caught myself napping in between stages of getting it together. :).

Repurposing

I guess my definition of re -purposing is: altering the original use of something. So how many ways do you know you can alter the use of baby oil, besides the original use. which is of course using it on a baby. To begin with, some people have an opinion that the use of baby oil, on a baby or adult either one, is not good, because it is the by product of manufacturing, petroleum into gasoline. I respect those people's opinion, but I enjoy the feel and smell of baby oil.

Just the other day, my son was fixing something on my car, and got his hands greasy and oily. He proceeded to pour just a tidbit of some clean car oil into the palm of his hands. I asked about it, and he said that the clean oil, cut the dirty oil, better then soap and water. I watched and it sure did. So the next time my hands were very dirty from working in the garden, I used baby oil that I had added some granules of sand too. The sand made it a little abrasive, and really cut the dirt off of my hands, and added moisturizer to my hands also. We all have used it to remove makeup, get gum out of our kid's hair, and adding a sparkle to our chrome fixtures. But what Pat mentioned awhile back blew my mind. She had read that you could use baby oil to make vellum paper out of regular printer paper. I've always been a bit of a doubting Thomas, so when she said what this weeks Saturday Night challenge was, I knew right away, what I was going to try. Well doubt NO more. What she had read, was correct. The first picture below shows 4 colors I tried it on. I could not believe how well it worked. I just laid the paper on a paper towel, used a cotton ball to saturate the paper with the baby oil, then blotted the excess off the paper with a dry paper towel. I waited awhile, and then wiped the excess off the paper again. I let it dry thoroughly overnight, before using it. I used black Ink It Up ink to stamp the butterfly on the orange sheet of vellum, I had made. Heat set it, and then cut 2 of them out. I placed them on a piece of orange checked DP using 3-D dots. I then placed the sentiment and little pearls and ribbon on the yellow CS card. I thought with this sentiment, that I would be able to use this for a graduation card. Thanks Pat for the challenge and thanks to rest of you for letting me share.

Make you SMILE

Last weekend my grand daughters Mother remarried. The girls aged 3 and 8.5 were to be part of the wedding party. Julie had a beach wedding,so during the ceremony the little one, Nat, got bored with the whole thing. They go to the beach a lot so Nat knows what it is all about. So she decided to put her priorities in order and do what you are supposed to do when you go to the beach, Play in the Sand. Just how hard that could be, she probably wonders. The photographer caught this perfect shot.

Now didn't that make you smile on a Monday morning?

For her wedding present, I made her a small scrap book and card. The book is store bought, and I did some altering to it. I used my Cricut to cut out the word Wedding. For Julie and her husband's name, I cut them out using the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge. I used the shadow feature to get the outlined in black look. I forgot to take a picture of where the book is bound. I wrapped the spine in a white satin ribbon, and finished it off with a bow.

I guess by now you have figured out that the rusty orange was the color used in her wedding.

On each page I put a little embellishment or something to give it a little pop. She will add her pictures.

On the inside back cover, I made a pocket using the punched out border card piece and adhered it by using two dimensional dots stacked up on top of each other, all around the sides and bottom. That way she will have plenty of room to put the card in that I made for her, and use it for extra pictures or whatever.
Thanks for letting me share.

Sympathy Cards

Well I made it through Monday, so I consider it down hill now to Friday evening. We had rain all weekend, so thought I would work on replenishing my own supply of cards. Seems like any more I am making cards at the last minute for someone. Sympathy is the hardest for me to do, so I made myself start with those. I did get 2 completed. Another thing I was trying to do was to use the papers and stuff that had gathered on my desk. Here are the sympathy cards I came up with. Thanks for letting me share.

You can not see it in the picture but on the white card, I used the scorpad to make a textured background. It is a new present, so I just try to use it in some way on every thing I've made this weekend. I don't know how I functioned with out that thing.

Pat's Saturday Night Challenge via Shelia

Pat has had some things going on this week, so I am going to do her challenge. Now wipe all those frowns off your faces. She will be back next week with something really challenging. Even a bad card challenge is better then NO Challenge at all. Now I know you all have to agree to this. wink*

I like the word Pat used on one of her challenges a few Saturday's back. RECIPE. So I am going to do as she did and give you a recipe for a card.

1. NO STAMPS

2. 3 Buttons

3. As many papers as you desire

4. Flock or Flower Soft

5. Ribbon

6. A sentiment

Remember you can not use stamps. I used my Cricut and cut out the trunk of the tree using Stretch Your Imagination and used Cricut cartridge Jasmine to cut out the sentiment "Friend".

I used green and Lilac Flock for my blooming tree and then outlined the trunk with a Bic Marker. I used Cosmos Cricket Wanted paper and I used a colored pencil to draw in a little grass. Have fun and don't forget to link them back to Pat's Southern Breezes.

Thanks Pat for giving me the opportunity to do this. Come on girls participate this week, don't let me down. If it sounds like I'm begging, Well you are right. *wink*

The Shirt Off My Back

Yes I would, if I thought you really needed it, I would give you the shirt off my back. In this case, it would be this Hawaiian style shirt. This week Pat's color challenge was centered around a floral tablecloth that she had used during some of her classes. When I showed my DH, Pat's card, and the pic of the tablecloth, Allan made the comment, that looks like a Hawaiian Print shirt. I went on a mission and found the template at this site. I printed Pat's picture of the tablecloth 2 times, then used a coordinating color for the collar and button placket. On the inside I wrote, "Friend, I would gladly give you the shirt off my back". This was a real fun challenge. I know it wasn't quite what Pat had in mind, but I sure did a god job using the colors of the table cloth, didn't I. Thanks to Pat for challenge and to my Allan for his inspiration on this one.

Karen

"Friends are God's way of taking care of us."

And that is exactly what Karen does.

Today is Karen's birthday. We go way back, we may not see each other very much, But we both know that each other is just a phone call away. Karen and her husband stood with my husband and I at our marriage, many years ago.

Happy, Happy Birthday, Dear Friend.

I used Wild Asparagus DP paper,The embellishment butterfly was from a pack of three, that were really plant stakes from the Dollar Store. The ribbon is from my stash jar. TFL

A recipe that doesn't list chocolate as an ingredient???

I usually don't try recipes that do not have chocolate listed as the first ingredient, *wink*
but since this was Pat's challenge this week I thought I would give it a try.
Heather had made Pat a Mother's Day card, and Pat used it as a recipe for us to use for this weeks challenge.
2 Stamps
3 papers
A button
A brad or metal embelly
And A Flower


The first picture is of some of the things I used to construct my take on the recipe.




The 2nd picture is the finished product. I know the ribbon is loose, so I fixed it tighter. Also for the record, "thinking of you" is not a stamp, but a rub on. The metal accent was taken from some costume jewelry that I found really inexpensively awhile back, just to use in this way. The stamps are by Technique Tuesday. It may appear that I used 4 colors of paper, but the white is outlined with a Bic Black Mark it. The button came from my button jar. Thanks Pat, and thanks to all the other gals that participated this week. It's way more fun, the more that joins in.

A VERY GOOD DAY

Things that has made today a "good day"

First of all it is Friday

It has been a beautiful spring day

I get to work outside all day tomorrow in my flowers

And best of all My Mom came home from the hospital today.

After falling on Easter Sunday, my 85 year old Mother came home from the hospital today. She is one strong determined lady. She really had us girls very worried about her. I want to thank all the prayer warriors that continued to pray for her recovery.

Like I said above it is Friday, and that is the day we get to turn in our Saturday Night Challenge over at Pat's Southern Breezes. This week we were suppose to use something besides a regular stamp to make a card or layout.

You know how sometimes you sit at the computer with one leg under you, well last Friday that is what I was doing at work. My shoe slipped off, and when I picked it up, I noticed the neat design on the bottom of it. Thus the beginning of my Grand-daughters 20th Birthday Card. Her birthday is Sunday. It is so hard to believe that I have a child old enough to have a 20 year old. I know all of your are counting on your fingers now trying to figure out just how old I must be to have a granddaughter that age. *wink*

The first picture is of the bottom of my shoe with the stamping ink on it. I used a little mini ink pad by MS . The color was called Bamboo. I stamped the shoe design on regular White card stock 4 times, cut them out in the shape that they stamped out as. Arranged them into a butterfly, and used the Cricut Doodlecharm cartridge to cut out the body of the butterfly. I put some of MS Fine Crystal Glitter randomly on the wings and covered the body with it. I used a scrap piece of DP, and attached it all together. On the inside I put Spread your wings, which I thought was appropriate for a 20th Birthday. Thanks for looking.