Happy Birthday Seth and Colin - Giving Thanks

Have you ever wondered how two little smiles can lighten your day? Or how the sound of a babies cry just seems to make the would seem a bit more precious somehow, even with all of the nastiness around us. For some people, those same smiles and cries bring tears instead of joy because they cannot carry a child, have lost a child before, or cannot even get pregnant to be blessed with a child.

So why write this post, with birthday card? Well, because of two little boys in Ethiopia, the wonderful orphanage taking care of them, and the mother that made the painful decision to give them up for a better life because she could not feed them or support them with the other children she had after their father died.

My niece & her husband are adopting these two beautiful boys as soon as the Ethiopian court signs off on their application; so I cannot publish their pictures or their Ethiopian names at this time. Even though, the boys first names with be American, they will also be keeping their Ethiopian names as their middle names. One of the Ethiopian names means "to replace" and is so appropriate because my niece has had two ectopic pregnancies and cannot have any babies of her own. Both of these children will be replacing the ones she has lost physically, even though in her heart she will always still remember those babies as well.

Both Seth and Colin celebrated a birthday recently, so my husband and I wanted to send them a birthday card and welcome them to the family even though they are not physically here yet. Colin, is the youngest and just turned 2years old, so I thought it appropriate to have a card that was younger looking and this was accomplished using stamps from CC Designs.

Seth, just turned 3 years old, so I thought having a card that had some "African" animals, or lions, would be appropriate for him. This was accomplished using GinaK stamps.

Now since both of these cards would be belated birthday cards, I didn't want anything "mushy" inside and decided to keep everything semi-cute for Seth as well.

A koala bear on the inside with a saying on a tri-fold card, with a snake on the other part of the tri-fold did the trick.

Both of these little guys have made me realize just how much God meant with the scripture "He gives to the broken hearted" and "He is the Father to the fatherless". He has been protecting both Seth & Colin for my niece and her husband all of this time, just waiting for them to be ready for their children, the children He has given to them, to come home to their arms.

Thanks be to God, for He is good!

Stamps: CC Designs, GinaK Designs

Cardstock: Stampin Up! Garden Green, More Mustard, White, Green Galore, Gable Green, Glorious Green

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin Up! More Mustard, Garden Green, Soft Sky, Old Olive

Accessories: Prismacolor Markers, Watercolor Pencils, Brads, Dimensionals, Stipple Brush, Brads

Butterflies and Flowers

Third Post today! Wow!

I made this card for one of the Just Us Girls challenges during the Monday Night Football game a couple of weeks ago, but got sidelined by another migraine, so it never got uploaded. A really simple card. It took no time at all to make.

I stamped my Martha Stewart butterfly set that needed to see some ink on some Autumn Leaves poppy paper twice, cut them out, and layered one on on a bunch of Autumn Leaves red silk poppies. I then added some flocked silk Prima leaves underneath to balance out some of the red.

For the inside of the card, I stamped a sentiment from one of Our Daily Bread's Grace sets and added the other butterfly with smaller red Prima flowers with a Stampendous class-a-peel sticker in the center.

Very simple and took a total of about 20 minutes to make, in between watching the football game. :)

Stamps: Martha Stewart Butterfly, Our Daily Bread Grace

Cardstock: Stampin Up! Black, Autumn Leaves Poppy Prints, White

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin Up! Real Red

Accessories: Stipple Brush, Prima Flowers & Flocked Silk Leaves, Autumn Leaves Silk Flowers, Glue Dots, Stampendous Class-A-Peel Stickers, Ribbon

Guess Hoo?

I'm on a roll today...second post. I made this for this week's Crazy for Challenges geometric challenge. I have not had a chance to ink up my MFT October kit yet (the shame!) so this was the perfect time for it.

I started out by stamping my little owlie on the creme panels included in the kit and coloring him with prismacolor markers then inking the sides with PTI tea stain inks. Something just seemed to be missing though because there was too much open space. So I dug through my MFT sets to find my Branch Out set and inked it up with memento dark cocoa and bamboo leaves inks to add the branches and extra leaves. Now everything looked much better. After adding some ribbon, cutting off at an angle for more of a country feel, my card is finished.

Stamps: MFT October Just Add Color Kit - Thinking of Hoo

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, PTI Tea Stain (Chai)

Cardstock: MFT Creme Panels, Memory Box Butterfield Papers, Fossil Notecard, Stampin Up! Always Artichoke

Accessories: Baby Braddies, Prismacolor Markers, Ribbon

Polar Bear Ball

This week's So You Think You Can Stamp Challenge is the Waltz. Not sure how many of you are old enough to remember a cartoon from years ago called The Ugly Bug Ball, but it's this silly little too bit cartoon with all of these ugly bugs that we love to squash, flatten, kill and torture like crazy all dressed up in their finest at a totally elegant, yet cute, ball just for ugly bugs. You name the bugs, yes I believe there was even a black widow who couldn't understand why all of her partners kept dying, at the ball in tuxedos and full length dresses with hats, pearls or diamonds to match. So when Kim posted the Waltz as the challenge, this was the first thing that came to mind, an elegant ball. The only problem was no MFT stamps resembling a ball. My penguin set shows penguins sledding, jumping and having a grand ol' time. Definitely not elegant. I guess that's why we call it a challenge, right? So on went the thinking cap. Now what about Polar Love that I got with the last release for free?? I could alter that to make a Polar Bear Ball instead of an Ugly Bug one. Cool!!

I decided for the elegant piece of it to pull out my Die Cuts With A View LeCreme Mat Stack and found the background papers that looked the closest to snowflakes falling. Pulling out both a vanilla colored one and a black one, I now had my color combination for the card. Pulling out one of the cream panels from this months Just Add Color Kit, I stamped my polar bears in memento tuxedo black and colored with prismacolor markers. Now, since polar bears are white, I stamped them again on MFT Perfect Panels (since they were going to be popped up) and colored only the ears, nose, and scarves. I decided the noses had to be pink since the bears were at their "ball" where it's cold and frosty with the wind blowing making their noses so cold. The scarves would serve as the bears tuxedos and ball gowns, so I made sure the "men bears" had their scarves blended to a lighter shade than their female counterparts so the "gowns" would have a richer feel to them. To get enough couples for the ball, I stamped and colored three additional couples to fill in the card and then folded them at the hearts so they would fit on the card for mailing but could be opened up otherwise (as seen here).

To add some elegance to the ball, I added some pearl stickers from my stash at the corners of the paper layers like brads and MFT's Royalty Ribbon Nest at the top. Ice stickles were also added to the scarves of each of the female polar bears like "faux necklaces". I also added white fun flock to each of the polar bears tails since I've had this stuff for a long time (it's all Jody's fault) and have never used it.

This is what the entire card looks like with the three couples "folded" up for mailing.

Stamps: MFT Polar Love

Cardstock: Stampin Up! Black, Die Cuts With A View LeCreme Mat Stack, MFT Perfect Panels

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Accessories: Prismacolor Markers, Pop Dots, Ice Stickles, Pearl Stickers, Fun Flock, Martha Stewart 2-Way Glue Pen, Ribbon

Reflections

No specific card to share today, just words and today seems like a good day to share them. You see today my mother would have been 60 years old today. However, when she was 38 years old it was discovered she had breast cancer and that it had been growing for approximately two years already so the odds were already against mom. Mom had had multiple health issues during those previous two years, and had a mammogram at the beginning since the doctors were going to be starting a series of treatments for her which one of the side effects was the possibility of breast cancer but they would be doing mammograms every six months to prevent this. However, her insurance at the time, and the doctor taking over the treatments said young women don't have a high risk even though mom kept asking for the mammograms. You know the doctor knows best routine. Well, they finally did one when she found a huge lump in her right breast and it gave her no satisfaction to say "I told you so". As scared as mom was, she had the mastectomy, the chemotherapy and radiation and sure enough, beat it back for over 8 months of remission.

Then in early 1990, we found out that mom's recurrent pneumonia and back pain were due to the cancer coming back in her lungs and spine. The fight was back on. This time, though, mom didn't seem to have the same fight in her. Oh, she was fighting, don't get me wrong, but it was different. I had just gotten engaged when she received the diagnosis, and she told me she "had a feeling that when I die, it will be a thank goodness this is over kind of thing." I didn't want to hear about my mom dying, especially since she was my best friend, confidante, and rock to lean on in tough times too. Two months before my wedding my mother was told she only had six weeks to live, and she told the doctor that was unacceptable because her daughter was getting married in eight weeks. She not only lived to see my wedding, but helped walk me down the aisle, made the wedding cake, my bouquet, and all of the silk flower arrangements we used for the wedding. She wanted me to always have my bouquet to remember her by, and I still do, carefully packed away from damage. In fact, mom lived for five more months after our wedding, and passed away on Pentecost Sunday, May 19th, 1991. Her last months were hard as the cancer spread like wildfire with tumors growing so big they were pushing against the skin were we could see them.

Now why do I write this post. First, yes it's mom's birthday and I'm having a hard time today wishing her happy birthday silently through wet eyes. Yes, it's been a long time, but it still hurts. Second, my pastor on her blog recently suggested thinking about what we're thankful for. Well, I'm definitely thankful for God giving me my mom, but not just for giving me life. She was a wonderful example of what a mother should be even though she had to be a single mom a good portion of my life. She was a wonderful crafter too. She could paint, color, create anything she put her mind to, knit, sew, you name it. Mom also sang, and played the organ/piano too. Mom is the one who insisted I go to church when I though it was more important to watch football games on the T.V. or just plain goof off instead. She was also the one that insisted I learn more about Jesus and learn more about having a relationship with Him instead of wanting to sit in my room reading dirty books I would hide from her and she would find. If it wasn't for my mom, I wouldn't be a Christian today.

Most of all, I am thankful for the memory of the teddy bear mom kept next to her as she lay dying on that hospital bed we had at home. The bear she called her Jesus Bear. You see mom taped a quarter to one of the bear's paws for when it was time to "go home" she was going to call Home to her Savior to let Him know she was on her way. As mom slipped away, my step-dad reminded mom to not forget to make her call. A few days later, I was helping clean up in the living room, and I was moving the bear to the side of the fireplace, and I noticed the tape and the quarter were both missing. There was not even the hint of tape having been on the bear's paw either and both of those had been there for over a month. So when I get down, really down, I try to remember mom's Jesus Bear and the phone call she made on her way Home.

Owls & Bluebells

Another card from the archives. I made the card for one of the last MFT sketch challenges - MFTSC99.

I chose to use a set I had not inked up yet, but had in my stash for a while. My little owls were stamped in memento tuxedo black on MFT perfect panels and then coloring with Prismacolor markers. Stampin Up! soft sky was stippled around the owls softly to fill in the white space.

The background stamping was done using PTI's Mod Squad set with Stampin Up! tempting turquoise and apricot appeal ink. The small flowers are the trio flower punch also from Stampin Up!

Here is a close up of the owls.









Stamps: PTI Mod Squad, MFT Owls & Bluebells Cardstock: Stampin Up! Tempting Turquoise, Apricot Appeal, Certainly Celery, MFT Perfect Panels
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin Up! Tempting Turquoise, Apricot Appeal, MFT Perfect Panels
Accessories: Ribbon Bow, Glue Dots, Flower Punch, Bling, Prismacolor Markers, Baby Brads, Stipple Brushes

Dancing Queen

Last week's challenge with the "So You Think You Can Stamp" series was retro, or to go disco. The memories this challenge brought back this week. Yes, I know I'm dating myself but who cares. After considering several songs, "Jive Talking", "Burn Baby Burn..Disco Inferno", "Stayin Alive", I settled for Abba's "Dancing Queen" which was one of my non Bee Gee or Andy Gibb favorites.

I started out by stamping The Poppies twice on white cardstock and cutting out the guitar players to pop up later and then stamped Party Girl on MFT perfect panels and cut out to pop up later as well. I used elements from Funky Flowers to make my "tambourine" :) and highlighted it with Stampendous class-a-peel stickers I've had for eons in my stash after coloring everything with prismacolor markers. The "skirt" of my dancer is a silk red heart bridal confetti from Michaels that I cut & modified to make a "modest" skirt for a 17 year old from the disco era and highlighted that with platinum ice stickles. My "lights" are also Stampendous class-a-peel stickers so I would not have to cut or punch out anything to make disco lights.

Stamps: MFT Party Girl, The Poppies, Funky Flowers

Cardstock: Stampin Up! Brocade Blue, Black, White, MFT Perfect Panels, Designer Paper

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Brilliant Blue, Soft Sky, Versafine Chalk Ink

Accessories: Stipple Brushes, Stampendous Class-A-Peel Stickers, Primas, Glue Dots, Gem Stickers, Prismacolor Markers, Dimensionals, Pop Dots, Micro Pop Dots, Mini Pop Dots, Artist Pen, Silk Heart Bridal Confetti

Cherish Vintage Blossoms

Here's one from the archives. This was from one of MFT's sketch challenges before the sketches were discontinued for a bit. I had a blast stamping this card because I was able to just go outside my normal "comfort" zone and be crazy with it.

I started out by stamping my Boho Blossom flowers in memento pink and PTI enchanted evening inks on white cardstock and then cutting them out. I then stamped the heart from Boho Blossoms in PTI blush on Stampin Up! blush blossom cardstock. Pulling out some Making Memories vintage embellishments and designer paper I had just purchased at Michaels, I decided to use the stamp, paper daisies, thread and button to help "liven up" my card.



I sponged Stampin Up! night of navy dye ink around my card and layers before adhering them to the card, added my flower layers with the button, and found a metal word sticker from my stash I've had for who knows how long. I added the vintage paper daisies and stamp last to finish the card off.

A perfect vintage card, but not appearing to be too overdone.

Stamps: MFT Boho Blossoms
Cardstock: Stampin Up! Night of Navy, Blush Blossom, White, Making Memories Vintage Paper
Ink: Memento Pink, Stampin Up! Night of Navy, Papertrey Ink Enchanted Evening
Accessories: Sponges, Glue Dots, Making Memories Vintage Embellishments, Thread, Colorbook Metal Word Sticker