Card Challenge

CardzTV has a challenge to use a fun fold card for the current challenge.  I've had a fold I got from the Silhouette store some time ago and decided to make a fall card using that fold.  I had a leaf and pumpkin stamp that I stamped on colored cardstock, then cut them out after I picked out some paper.  It was so easy to cut the card with the Cameo....that machine cuts like butter!  Used my stamp from the Thanksgiving/Fall stamp set from CardzTV....Mary's stamps are so great!  I have several, but would love to have more!!! Below is the card I made, I love how it turned out!!

The papers are from a stash I have had for a couple of years and the sequins are from a pack I found at JoAnn's.  I curled up the leaves a little to give it some texture.  Hope you like it and God Bless!

Update

Much has happened in recent months.  My oldest sister died, lost her battle with the last stages of Alzheimer's disease.  For months my family in Oklahoma (nieces) have kept me up to date with her condition.  Right after I was there in February (like that night) she fell and was in the hospital then a nursing home since then. She stopped eating or drinking fluids in June but would occasionally have a good day and take a little food or liquids.  Her body finally wore out, and God called her home to be with him on September 6th.  I was born on her 22nd birthday, which is the 12th of September.  First time in my life I celebrated it without her, I called her her wishing her a Happy Birthday and she would laugh and say, "Well, Happy Birthday to you, too!"  Missed that so much this birthday.  I was in Oklahoma with her husband, children, grandchildren and great grandchildren...it was a hard day for us all.  A tree near the plot where she was buried had been diseased, a man came to the site and carved a statue from the remains of the tree.  It was so impressive!  I'm sure she would have loved it if she had seen it!! See the angel below carved from the remains of the tree.

 
Seems like life has been a blur for the last several months.  Haven't had much motivation in creativity.  I did go to a local scrapbooking store and took a few technique classes.  But my heart wasn't in it at times.  Made a few cards on my own using those techniques, just haven't posted anything. Made a new friend from the store and look forward to sharing in more crafts. 

Checking in!

It has been a couple of busy weeks!!  Last weekend I took a much needed trip to visit one of the best friends God ever put in my path!  We have known each other for over 40 years and each time we get to see each other it is like we have never been apart.  We seem to pick up where we left off! It had been 13 years since we had seen each other, but had the best 2 days, laughing, talking sharing our life experiences and of course shopping.  Then it was back to work!  A  L O N G week back to work!!

This morning I let myself sleep in.  Then I cleaned my bathroom, got a load of clothes in to wash and then decided I would clean out my refrigerator!  UGH!!  Took out everything in the frig, even all the shelves and drawers!  Threw out stuff and then made some changes with the placement of shelves and drawers and where I stored things.  Looks completely different!  I hope I don't forget where I put everything!!!  Who would have thought what hard work it turned out to be, I was so hot and sweating by the time I finished!  I'll have to take a shower before my next venture to head to Bed Bath and Beyond for some Debbie Meyer storage containers for fruits and vegetables....my friend swears by them!!

Not much time for crafting lately...maybe later on today!! I miss it!!!

Chicken Scampi

I love to go to Olive Garden, but I don't get there very often.  My favorite dish is Chicken Scampi, found a site that had the recipe so today I gave it a try.  Turned out really good!  Close, but not Olive Garden's taste to me!  It was good and easy to do so I'm happy with that!  Guess I'll be having it this week for supper or maybe lunches!  :-)
If all goes well, I'm heading to visit a long time friend on Friday!  She called me last week to tell me she had been diagnosed with breast cancer.  Thankfully it is a really early stage and the doctors are going to keep a close watch on her.  Apparently her estrogen levels were off the chart and feeding the cancer because her mammogram in December didn't show any sign of anything.  Going off of hormone therapy and a few other adjustments in her life will hopefully stop the growth for many years to come.  Anyway, it's been a while since we've had a chance to visit so now seems like a good time to meet and catch up and celebrate life!  I'm sure this will be the slowest week ever!!  Might have to remake this card for her to make her smile and remind her that God gives us a new beginning every day!

Postal Carrier's Food Drive - Mailbox

Got the "mailbox" completed and it turned out just as I had envisioned.  Our mail carrier that comes by daily to drop off and pick up mail saw it and asked to take pictures to show to her team!!!  COOL!!  Hope you can give food to "Stamp Out Hunger" where you live!!

Friday Eve

I am SOOO glad the weekend is almost here!  There is a Postal Carriers food drive in our area with pick up on May 9th.  Our office is participating with the drive and drop off for clients to bring can food to donate.  Somehow I got charged with decorating the box!  I thought....oh great!!  How can I decorate a collection box....by the way, there is a contest for the best decorated box in all the offices....so I had this brain storm to make it look like a drop off mail box!  We got dark blue poster board with one red one.  The ideas started flowing!!  Another lady helped me put it together, I got 2 boxes and rounded two of the flaps for the sides of the "mail box", scored strips every 3/4 inch only thru the first layer so it would bend easily and taped the other side into the inside of the box to create the opening.  Used the part I cut for the curved sides as a pattern to cut the poster board.  Also slit the corners to fit the shorter one into the taller one for height and make it more "real" looking.  The curved part on the top I covered with red poster board and folded all around so there were clean looking edges.  Then I used the mail carrier bird on 3 Birds on Parade, did the print and cut thing with the Explore to be the emblem on either side.  Cut out white letters for the bottom front that spelled out FOOD and then a postage stamp cut for the top.  Used dark blue for the shadow, white for the "stamp" and cut out letters in red that spell STAMP OUT HUNGER.  So far it looks like a real mailbox!  To finish, I am using toilet paper and paper towel cardboard centers to cut in half, open up to form the look of 1/2 a can.  I'm going to decorate the "cans" with images of carrots, corn, tomato, peas, chicken and fish (for tuna) and then arrange them on the sides of the mail box.  I have some ideas on how make this work.....wish me luck!

Steak'ums!!!

Three days in a row with a post.....I'm on a roll!!  Had a meeting this morning that lasted until after noon.  Got back to the office for 30 minutes and then left for lunch!  HA!  Now that was a GOOD day!  LOL!  The afternoon flew by!  I have a work friend that lives close by, we both are single and are trying to squeak by until the end of the month for pay day!  I had found some Steak'ums on sale a few weeks back and had in my freezer, thought it would be a quick easy meal.....so I invited her over so we could relax and have a HUMAN to eat with instead of just our dogs!  HA!!!  Sauteed onions and green pepper strips and then added the meat, topped it off with a slice of mozzarella cheese until it melted a little bit....it was YUMMY!!  I had some frozen berries and fat free cool whip which I put in the frig when I got home to let them thaw.  I mixed the berries and cool whip for our "dessert", turned out to be a nice cool end to a warm day!  My baby dog (7 year old 70 pound baby dog) LOVES my friend and was SOOO excited!!  It was a nice time to fellowship and catch up, we work in different cities now and even though we live close, we don't get to meet and talk much.  Plus I knew she could use a "free" meal right now!!
Counting the days to payday.....won't come soon enough!!!

One day down.....4 more to go!

Many Thanks to Melissa at Sunshine Honey Bee for helping me with linking more than one post to Mary's Butterfly card challenge at CardzTV.blogspot.com.  I think I finally "got it"!!  The instructional videos at Inlinkz didn't really explain it or have an example like I needed to understand the process.  Melissa was so gracious!!  You really should go check out her blog....she has some beautiful creations!  Here is a link to her blog: http://createdbysunshinehoneybee.blogspot.com/

Today was a LONG day, started with a headache by mid morning and still have it.  It feels like a vise tightening around my head.  Haven't had one like this in a long long time!  Ready to call it a day and hopefully get some much needed sleep!

 Praying for a dear friend with a medical problem.  So thankful to God for the way He has looked after her and brought this all about so she can beat it early on!!  Amazing how God works!!  Hope your rest of the week is a peaceful, happy and blessed one!

Butterfly card #3

The Cricut Explore brings this butterfly card to be!  Using one of the Imagine cartridges and the print and cut feature here is the last card for the challenge.  Playing around with Design Space I was able to cut the layer with the large butterflies and dragon fly and pop them up.  I used a precut card from my collection that co-ordinated with the panel. I used Tim Holtz walnut distress ink around the panel to make it stand out from the green background.  The sentiment is part of the panel, but I used Wink of Stella to make it show up like glitter.  I glued the body portion of the butterfly and dragonfly and then folded the wings up for a 3-D effect.  I love the colors AND the way this one turned out!!
Thanks for stopping by!  May your week be full of God's blessings!
  

For some reason, I can't get the picture to turn the right way.  It looks right in the download, but is sideways on the post.  Oh well....you get the idea.

Entering in the following: CARDZ TV CARD DESIGNERS CHALLENGE #7 "BUTTERFLIES"

Second butterfly card

I wanted to make a card using my Silhouette Cameo, found a neat card with a butterfly.  Looking through some pre-cut cards, I found one with butterflies in black and ivory.  So I decided to use this for the base.  Then I cut out the layers with Pink, Black and Ivory and the butterfly in Pink.  I found a stamp from my collection that I stamped in black over the cut out and used a My Pinkstamper stamp for the sentiment.  Several months ago i baked some pony beads for enamel dots and used 2 black ones on each side of the pink layer.  I glued one side of the butterfly on the layer and popped up the other side to give it a 3-D look.  Again Wink of Stella on the butterfly and sentiment to give it some shine! The Silhouette cuts are so easy!  Love that machine!!
Thanks for stopping by!  God Bless You!!

Card number 2 to CARDZ TV CARD DESIGNERS CHALLENGE #7 "BUTTERFLIES"

Sunday

CardzTV Butterfly card challenge - #1

A few weeks ago, Mary, from CardzTV, did a series of cards sets using Create a Critter. It inspired me to pick out some critters and come up with a variety of cards.  I made birthday, thinking of you, thank you and get well cards....turned out to be a lot of fun!  I saw the challenge for the Butterfly cards and it gave me the idea for a few more. This one is a butterfly from Create a Critter, has a coral and reddish color for the butterfly.  I used Wink of Stella on the wing.  Cut an oval and embossed with my Cuttlebug Butterfly embossing folder and used Gina K companion cardstock (tomato soup) and paper from my stash.  The sentiment is from a My Pinkstamper stamps using a ticket punch and a striped enamel dot from A C Moore.  I love how it turned out! 

Thanks for stopping by!  Hope you have a blessed day!

First card for the CARDZ TV CARD DESIGNERS CHALLENGE #7 "BUTTERFLIES"

I am such a slacker...haven't updated anything since January!  I have had some health issues and also made a trip to see family in Oklahoma.....a much needed trip!  I haven't stopped making cards just not posting them.   Mary at CardzTV had a set of cards using the cricut or Sihouette....it inspired me to pick out some items and make cards.   This project took serveral different days working on them but I finally finished!!  I think there was at least 12 different ones, sort of did the same things for some Easter cards but not as many.....love the print and cut for the Silhouette Cameo....they have some really cute things to choose from.  I hope to have a couple of butterfly cards finished for Mary's current challenge.  Have a blessed day

CardzTV challenge, "Any Occasion"!  Love Mary's videos, she just filmed the 1,000th one...how exciting!  I've learned so much from her and been challenged to do something new time after time!  I have a sweet friend who is having a birthday this week, I crocheted a long ruffled scarf for her and made a card and bag to match using my new Explore.  I've watched several you tube videos and tried some of the editing tools on an Imagine image and really liked how it turned out.

I liked  the saying, but not the chicken that was a part of it, so I edited it out and then cut one in layers and even put it on the other side.  I found a card with the front printed with cupcakes and loved how it came together with the print and cut item.  The bag is simple, but I used the same items just on a larger scale.  Using the 'canvas' to size the card or bag helped get the right measurements for my design.  I've been hesitant to buy the Explore, but found a really good deal and so far I like using it! I just hope it isn't another piece of scrap machine in another year or so.  Time will tell with the Cricut company!!  Anyway, I'm having fun with it so far!!  But still love my Silhouette Cameo, too!