Hurricane Matthew

I don't live near the coast, but some dear folks I care about do.  I'm so thankful they came thru the storm that caused so much damage going up the eastern coast.  In the central part of the state we had rain Friday and all day yesterday.  Such a dreary day!  This morning I awoke to sunshine and a beautiful day.  Amazing the change in just a few hours.  I pray for those that lost so much, I know Franklin Graham and those from the Samaritan's Purse were in Florida as soon as the worst of the storm was over trying to help those that were hit so hard.  One video from Fayetteville, NC was so striking.  A woman's car was in deep water and she was standing on the seat of the passenger side on the outside of the car hanging on with one hand, and hanging on to a baby and protecting it with her body and the other arm.  When help came, they took the child from her and it was the most stirring thing to watch.  How scared she must have been, and how relieved to see help arrive.  How sad that the rain waters came so quickly and unexpected mass flooding in no time at all.  Thank God for those that put their lives on the line to help the ones that were stranded and helpless.  God bless those first responders.

# 3 for CardzTV Birthday Card Challenge

My 3rd card for Mary's Challenge I used Technique Tuesday "Building Poppies" stamp.  The card base is Gina K Design Black heavy weight cardstock and makes a very nice card base.  I also picked her Fired Brick cardstock and scrap of teal to create Mary's Sketch #2 design for this card.  I love how it came together!  I used Spectrum Noir Markers and Prismacolor Pencils to color the poppies and background.  The sentiment is from CardzTV "Good Times" cutting two banners placed in an offset with the black and white cardstock.  A few tiny sequins finish it off!

This is my favorite of the cards I've made for the challenge!  I made some score lines using Martha Stewart's small score board on the teal and thought that added to the texture making the teal not look so plain.  This was a fun card to put together and really loved the time creating all 3 cards using Mary's sketches! Thanks to Mary for sharing her craft and all her wonderful videos!!  God Bless!

Another card!

I decided to use some Lawn Fawn Small Stitched Leaves for a Fall Birthday card.  I used Mary's Sketch #3 using Gina K Designs Autumn Leaves 6X6 paper, and Tomato Soup cardstock for the card base.  I had some scraps of mustard colored paper with orange dots that worked well with the other papers.  I cut the leaf dies on white cardstock and used Distress inks of mustard, fired red and peeled paint to tint the leaves and Distress markers to detail the veins and stem.  The sentiment comes from the Clearly Besotted "To You With Love" stamp set I used on the Purple card posted yesterday.  I love how swirly the letters are, it gives the feeling of the wind blowing thru the letters.  Finished it off with some LUX Copper Crystal Drops...love that stuff, you can make your dots different sizes!!

Hope you have had a wonderful day!!  God Bless

Purple Birthday Card for CardzTV Challenge

I have become so in love with floral stamps lately!!  I love the layered ones but can't seem to get it to turn out like others do.  Not sure I have the right mix of colors or what....but I keep practicing!!  I saw the new challenge for CardzTV using Mary's sketch 2 or 3 and so it was time to pull out some of the new stamps I have and get to work!!  Here is the first one, the stamp is from Clearly Besotted "To You With Love".  I used Prismacolor Premium pencils and a mix of Kuretake water pens for the flowers and foliage.  I used Wild Lilac cardstock from Gina K Designs....very wonderful cardstock!!  For the layers I used some 6X6 paper  and stitched ovals to die cut the flowers and purple shadow.  My sentiment came from Mary's CardzTV "Good Times" I just love her stamps!  Here's my first card for the challenge!

This turned out to be just what I wanted.  I have a few purple lovers in my workplace....will have to decide who will get this on their birthday.  I loved the sketch, it is #3 and it came together so easily.

Can't wait to get the other ones posted for the challenge!!

Have a great day and may God Bless you!!

LONG TIME...

Wow! Time has flown by!  The summer came and went....although it was really hot, we survived it!  More work in the kitchen...this time furniture.  Got a wild hair to paint my dining table and chairs.  Sort of nervous about it, but love how it turned out!  This is the before of the table and chairs:

I've always loved this set, just felt like I wanted a change.  Now for the steps to the final version:

The primer on the bottom and removing layers on the top.

The first coat of the "buff" paint on the bottom of the table...still working on getting the layers off the top.

A peek at one of the chairs....so different and STILL working on that top layer.

Finally now to the staining!!! I love it!

Stain has been finished and now starting on the poly stain....2 more coats.

The chairs and bottom of the table need another coat of buff and then a rubbing stain to bring out the design in the them.

Still need that final coat and rubbing stain, but for now this is how it looks!  I totally love it!!!

This is the kitchen window treatment before....just a valance and white shade under it for privacy.

I decided to change it up and made a floral valance with grommets and then covered the shade with a coordinating stripe material I actually found at Walmart!  I had the floral print from the window treatments in my den that I made several years ago.  I had kept the scraps and had one large enough for the valance.  I loved it but wanted something different for the shade.  So...I was on the hunt at different shops for material to coordinate.  It was Waverly material I had gotten from a large warehouse when I was working on the windows and matching pillows in the den.  So when I saw the stripe...it was just what I had been looking for and it was Waverly print as well!  I was THRILLED!!    I love the new look!!  It really made a big difference in the total look of the room!  Need to get back to Lowes to get more paint for the chairs and bottom of the table and get it all finished.  Lots of stuff going on at work and I'm zapped by the end of the day and on the weekends I'm exhausted, so it might be a little while before it is all completely done.  Have a long weekend coming up, might be the perfect time!