Just can't imagine

I just have to share this post by a mother who was in the Aurora theater with her teen-age daughters during the shooting this week.  What a horrific experience- and what a testimony.  I pray the three of them (and others who were traumatized through this event) can find peace and be able to sleep and go about their daily lives without fear.  I just can't imagine what it was like but hope that if I am ever in such a situation that I will not fail to trust God.

http://aminiatureclaypot.wordpress.com/2012/07/20/so-you-still-think-god-is-a-merciful-god/

Thankful for....

A couple days ago I started posting a photo on Facebook of things I am thankful for - one per day.  I am trying to think of things outside of the usual like family, friends, home, job - of course, I am thankful for them but I want to stretch myself a little and think beyond the obvious.
So far I am thankful for ...

icy cold drinks in aluminum cups.  Remind me of my childhood.  We had these cups and they were so old and worn that the color was almost gone.  Nothing like them on a hot day - the condensation on the outside is refreshing to the touch and the cold beverage is refreshing to the taste.

Also thankful for...

shade trees.  This one is in West Virginia and was between the houses we worked on last week.  It was a very welcome relief from the intense sun and heat. Thank you God for providing it.

Then our AC broke and I was thankful for....

a cool breeze.  Summer breeze, makes me feel fine.    Buddy likes the breeze too.

Today I am thankful for

photos.  This one is of my maternal grandparents.  All 4 of my grandparents had died before I was born so photos are the only way I have of knowing what they looked like.   The last to die was my maternal grandmother, Mary (Mamie) who died in April before I was born in June.  That's how I got my name.  I am so thankful for photos and the technology of today.  Photos are instantly viewed and shared by others all over the world.

What are some things you are thankful for?

Club Cards and samples - July

This weekend is the next card club and I spent most of the day designing the cards we will make.  I haven't been in the craft room for over a week so it was a much needed 'therapy'.  And I had so many new toys to play with.

The first card is pretty simple but has a few touches to make it special.   The embossing along the bottom edge and the 'shadow' on the butterfly make it more than just a clean and simple card.
Card Stock - Pink Pirouette and Primrose Petals
Stamp Sets - Papillon Potpourri and Word Play
Punch - Elegant Butterfly
Ink - Primrose Petals

Here are a few others using the embossing folder and/or the butterflies.

Raspberry Ripple and Summer Starfruit

Primrose Petals and Summer Starfruit

Gumball Green, SummerStarfruit, Primrose Petals, Midnight Muse

Midnight Muse

 This is the second card for club.  It uses the new set Blast Off and the new IN colors.
Card Stock - Midnight Muse, Summer Starfruit, Gumball Green and Raspberry Ripple DSP
Stamp Set - Blast Off
Ink- same colors as the card stock

Here is another card using the Blast Off set.

 I punched a circle in the window on the spaceship that shows the alien that is stamped inside the card.

And my last card - and most complicated one - but I really like it.  It is CASED from a card by Lee Ann Greff.

Card Stock -  Wild Wasabi, Pacific Point, Real Red, Bashful Blue, Whisper White
Stamp Set - Patterned Party, Bring on the Cake
Die cut - Tasteful Trim

Open the card and three wrapped presents pop out.  The DSP on the packages is from a retired set but you could use any patterned paper and change the other colors to match. 

Other cards using the Tasteful Trim die cut ...

Bright papers and the Patterned Party stamp set

Melon Mambo and Pretty in Pink using Word Play

 This one uses the leftover pieces from cutting the rick rack trim - don't waste anything!

This patriotic one is a little late for Independence Day but will make a nice Any Hero card for Operation Write Home.

I sure had fun today and 'almost' feel ready to go back to work.  Never feel totally ready.  I will probably need some time in the craft room again tomorrow evening - - what other new toys can I find to play with.  I have a stack of them!

Mission Trip to West Virginia - what a week it was!

Last week, hubby and I and 12 other members from our church went to Fairmont, West Virginia as a mission trip.  We were scheduled to work on 3 homes in Barackville. When we arrived, we learned that some huge storms had moved through the area on the night before and the camp where we were staying was without power.  They had generators to power enough of the kitchen to be able to feed the 100+ campers but no electricity for fans or water heater (cold showers).

We did have power at the work sites - probably would have had to come back home if we had not.  Tuesday evening the power was restored and just in time as it got even hotter and the fans were much needed for comfortable sleeping.  The fans did not do a lot in the 95+ heat of the afternoon but once the sun went down it cooled off some and having a fan blowing directly on me certainly helped me sleep.

This is one of the work projects -putting a roof over a deck which had been built through the same ministry several years ago.

 The deck got the sun most of the day so it was almost unbearable to use it during the summer.  Homeowners, Tony and Holly were very thankful for the roof and look forward to many days enjoying their deck in the shade.

Another project was painting a bedroom.  This is the project I worked on.  We primed and painted over the existing paneling.



We had to prep the walls by sanding off adhesive from lots of things taped to the paneling over the years.  Our team also enlarged the closet in the corner of this room.

Here the painting is almost finished.  Carpetting was also laid in this room.

We also held Backyard Bible Club in the afternoons.   We had two  young ladies from one of the homes who attended each day. Aubrey and Brieanna are the sweetest girls.  We really enjoyed getting to know them and plan to keep in touch.

One of the ways to cope with the heat was to make frequent trips to Walmart and we stopped to enjoy some Icees on one of the trips.

Tom drank his too fast, brain freeze :-)  It was a memorable week - not what we expected - but God provided what we needed. 

Play time !

Finally found some time to play with my new toys from the new big catalog.  Since I will be gone all next week and won't get in any stampin' time, felt I had to do some this morning :-) (Any excuse!)
Got out the new stamp sets (not all of them), embossing folders and framelits and thoroughly enjoyed my morning.

Blast Off is my new 'little boy' stamp.  I love it - and I know the young boys at church will love birthday cards like this one.  The spaceship window exactly matches one of the circle punches so I punched it out and stamped the astronaut inside the card.

I used the new IN colors for this one - Midnight Muse, Gumball Green, Summer Starfruit, and Primrose Petals.  It is really an easy card to make but will make some little boy very happy.

A couple new stamps sets here.  Itty Bitty Banners works perfectly with the Bitty Banners framelits.
The butterflies are from the Papillon Potpourri and match the new Elegant Butterfly punch.
The branch is from an old favorite Thoughts and Prayers but the flowers are the IN color Dahlias.

I punched out butterflies from solid catd stock and put them on the card front, then used a mini glue dot to adhere only the center of the stamped butterfly on top.  It looks like a colorful shadow.

Here is another of the Itty Bitty Banners and Papillon Potpourri butterflies.  The embossing along the bottom is one of the two folders in the Delicate Designs set.  This uses Summer Starfruit and Raspberry Ripple.

Here is a close up of the detail of the embossing folder.  It almost looks lke snowflakes to me  :-) The edges were cut with the new Large Scallop edgelit.  I used it reversed to make the scallops on the Whisper White.

This card features the other embossing folder in the Delicate Designs set.  The Midnight Muse ribbon is so pretty.  It comes in all 5 of the new IN colors.

Another close-up of the embossing.  This design also coordinates with the Large Scallop edgelit.

One of my free sets is the Daydream Medallions.  It has various sizes of medallion images that match perfectly to the new Floral Frames Framelits.   I stamped each medallion in a different color...

and cut out a piece of matching solid card stock in each size. I curled the medallion 'petals' a little using my paper piercing tool and then placed it on the matching card stock.  Again, sort of a shadow effect.
I've had lots of fun this morning - also finished up 2 sets of scrapbook pages.  I'll spend the afternoon sorting my scraps of paper and tidying up the craft room so it will be ready for me when I return :-)

A new friend and another card

Meet my new best friend :-)  Chilled in the frig, this was the perfect treat at the end of a very hot day.

And here is another herringbone card.   This is the technique for July - July 26th to be exact.  Why don't you join us ?  Details

Personalized work gloves ? and Technique Thursday

I needed a pair of work gloves for next week and found some easily at the local Walmart - but they were so plain and I wanted some way to mark them as mine.  Hmmm - stamps of course!

I added some Summer Smooches using Staz-on ink.  Really makes them MINE!  But don't look too closely.....

It was hard to stamp on the uneven surface.  Even with putting my left hand inside and using my finger tips as the hard surface.  I got a few edges of the stamp - but after all - the are work gloves!
Good enough for me :-)

Today I am prepping for my Techniques Thursday class which is tonight - nothing like waiting until the last minute.  Last night I made the sample card which they will make in class.  The technique is a layered flower.  Very easy to make.  This is a clean and simple card :-)



Here is another card using the layered flower. With the flower on the card you don't need much else.

And another - again  not much except a flower but so nice.

This is a new technique I found on another website - triple layer stamping.  So easy - notice how the images are lined up perfectly - and I did not use my Stamp-a-ma-jig.  This will be the technique for  July's Technique Thursday on July 26 (date is subject to change but I will keep you posted - trying to schedule a trip up north).