Where to start

I’ve made one sympathy card this weekend – a dear friend’s mother died. Just a couple of hours after I made his card, I found out a sweet young couple at our church lost their unborn son at 37 weeks. My heart is broken. How do I make them a card? How do I convey how much I ache for them, how much I am praying for them, how I literally don’t have words and just cry for them? But I will, because I do not want to not acknowledge their loss.  I cannot imagine. No one can know that hurt unless they’ve been there – left the hospital with empty arms. I hurt for them. I pray for them constantly.

This morning in church, our Worship Pastor announced that he is leaving. Their family is moving to take care of his wife’s aging and ill parents. I am thrilled that God provided the perfect job for him at another church in the area. I am glad that he is modeling for his children how to honor your parents. But, oh… Their youngest child is one of Elizabeth’s best friends and when she realized they’re moving far away, the look on her face was more than I could bear. He has been with us through the lowest of the lows…the days when our marriage was literally hanging by a hair (thread is stronger that what our marriage was hanging by, it was that bad). He was there as we, as I, struggled with infertility and gave us precious counsel. He was on the phone with my husband moments before Brad’s dad died. He has been with us through the highest of the highs…he has been at the hospital when each of our babies have been born, he celebrated with us and was the officiant as we renewed our wedding vows. He has truly pastored us. He has been at the hospital every time I’ve had surgery – and knows what a horrible PACU patient I am. He was there with Brad the last time I had surgery and was as shocked as we were that I was loaded up and headed home 30 minutes after I woke up (it was a BIG deal). His wife has been a dear friend and sounding board. She has counseled me as a wife and as a mom. She’s often the first call I make “Do I need to go to the doctor with this child?” (she’s a RN).  To say him leaving is unexpected wouldn’t be true, because we have expected it…just not yet.

But still, as sad as their leaving is to me – it’s not the loss of a child. We can still have a relationship with them. We can go visit them and it will be fun. Everything has been tempered by this young couple’s loss. I am drained.

Elizabeth CASEd a card

Last night we were sitting on the sofa after everyone else had gone to bed.  Elizabeth and I were watching one of her DVR’ed episodes of Martha  Bakes (yes, really, my 8-year-old has us DVR cooking shows – three as a matter of fact).  Anyway, I was blog surfing and she glanced over at the computer. “Ooooh! Mommy, that card is PRETTY! Don’t you have that stamp? Can I make that card?”  It was Audrey’s card from the PTI Blog Hop (which is a beautiful card).  I told her I didn’t have a big scallop for her to use as the accent, but she could use my Martha Stewart Lattice Arch Punch if she wanted.  She did. 

So, I broke out all the stuff and stamped the Mehndi Medallion (aka “Best $5 Stamp Set ever!”) for her – then I tied the ribbon for her at the end.  Beyond that, she did it ALL (including finding my little bag of goodies from a PTI forum member and swiping a Tiny Tag…LOL).  I thought she CASEd Audrey pretty well!  Here she is with her card:

And here’s the close up:

Recipe:
Cardstock: Hobby Lobby (White) Creative Memories (blue)
Stamp: PTI (Mehndi Medallion, Mixed Messages)
Die: PTI (Tiny Tags)
Ink:  Tsukineko (Versafine Onyx Black)
Punch: Martha Stewart (Lattice Arch)
Fibers: DMC (floss); Michael’s (white grosgrain ribbon)
Color medium: Crayola (color pencils)

What Would I Do?

Remind me to never, ever craft when I’m in a bad mood or had a bad day (like…oh…yesterday for example)  Ever.

So, tonight I decided I really wanted to CASE a card I’d seen several years ago.  You can see it here.  My version is a little different – I am using this funky stone brown/grey (and I don’t mean “funky” as in “I don’t like it” but “funky” as in “I don’t know exactly what color to call it”) and my card is a 6x6 base.

My favorite ribbon in the whole wide world…

Recipe:
Cardstock: Bazzil (grey, cream); PTI (Ripe Avocado, Raspberry Fizz)
Stamps: Friends ‘Til the End
Ink: Distress Ink, Walnut Stain
Ribbon: PTI Ripe Avocado Saddle Stitch

Thanks for stopping by.

Things I can’t pin on Pinterest but want to remember

So, if I want to remember it these days, I pin it on Pinterest (which is incredible!!!).  However, little snippets of smartness from a magazine article or column…can’t be pinned. So, here they are:

1. Use a baby wipe to clean a stain in the carpet. It’ll even take out red wine and chocolate with no damage to the carpet’s pile. (hopefully I won’t need that little tip in the next 18-24 months…we’re seriously eyeing wood/Pergo)

2. I love the “Buttercream” colors from the July 2011 issue of BH&G. I will have those saved in Coverleaf (once they update the subscription information). I really want to do yellow in our family room, hall, entry. And I want to do green in the kitchen and dining. Need to find two that work together.

3. 10 seconds in the bedroom to straighten the reading material on your bedside table and take the already-read stuff to the recycling bin.

4. 90 seconds to line up shoes at the bottom of the closet to make them easier to find.

5.  5 minutes to go through a single drawer and toss outdated and worn-out clothes. Too embarrassed to wear it to answer the door? Get rid of it.

And now, I can toss this little stack of torn out magazine pages into the recycle bin.

Sympathy cards

I recently needed to make sympathy cards for some friends of ours (a brother & sister and their families) and their mother. I decided I wanted to CASE this card by Melissa – minus the “bling”.  I thought it was soft, simple and sweet. I pulled the wrong “small flower” out of the case – but I’m the only one who will know that.  (well, now y’all do, too)

I didn’t want to make them all the same color, so I chose to make them each different – purple, blue and pink.  Since I used a darker color as the base, I lined the inside of the card with the light color mat. And to tone down the pop of the white mat, I used Old Paper Distress Ink to age the edges.

They’re going in the mail today. 

Hopefully I’ll be able to get to my Card Camp card today.  I had an idea while I was hanging beach towels on the line yesterday - now let’s see if I can translate it to paper!

Thanks for stopping by!

Recipe:
The cardstock is from my ancient stash. I know the dark purple is Bazzil, but nothing else is. It’s either from Creative Memories or Hobby Lobby.
Stamps:  PTI Botanical Silhouettes
Ink: Distress Ink (Old Paper, Worn Lipstick, Chipped Sapphire, Dusty Concord); Memento (Bamboo Leaves)

Summer Card Camp, week 3

If you’ve guessed, “Gina, the card camp is the only thing that has you crafting right now, isn’t it?”…well, you would have hit the proverbial nail on the head.  It’s just life with little ones and I embrace it. I have to or I go crazy.
So, here’s the color scheme for card camp this week:
It is my favorite color scheme so far; but, the one that took me the longest to come up with a card idea! I was sitting at the table today while Elizabeth was taking her math test and “bingo!” it struck. So, this is the first card idea I came up with. After I stamped it, I realized, “Uh-oh. I added green to this card. Bad Gina!” Oh well, here it is anyway:

You can’t really see it in this photo, but I scored the fence every half-inch to make it look a little more “fence-ish” (yes, I just made up a word. Work with me!) 

And then that prompted me to do this one…no green…obey the color scheme! Obey it! And it also prompted me to go through my stamp pads and find some decent inks…yikes, not thrilled about the tree above. Or the bird.

Not super thrilled about this bird, either, but I think that may just be part of stamping on kraft-colored paper.  I think a darker red might have made me a little happier. 
Recipes as follows:

Hi
Brown Cardstock: Bazzil
White Cardstock: Georgia-Pacific
Stamps: PTI Merry Little Christmas
Punch: Martha Stewart Lattice Arch
Stickers: K & Company
Ink: Jenni Bowlin Studios (Seed Packet), Studio G (brown, red, light green)
Other: Martha Stewart Scoring Board

Shining Star 
Brown Cardstock: Bazzil
White Cardstock: Georgia-Pacific
Stamps: PTI Merry Little Christmas & Botanical Silhouettes
Ink:  Tim Holtz Distress inks (Walnut Stain, Tea Dye, Worn Lipstick); Versamark
Other: Embossing powder from Michael’s

Thanks for stopping by!

Summer Card Camp–Week 2

This is week 2 of the Online Summer Card Camp. We got our color scheme for the week today and, unlike last week when I struggled, I’ve already come up with a card!  I was stamping with the PTI Botanical Silhouettes set earlier today when I realized I had the perfect sentiment for the dandelion puffs in the Fillable Frames 6 set. I almost squealed.  I grabbed my Pink Paislee Hometown Summer paper pack and got everything together so I could make the card. 

Our color scheme this week is a great one:

And here’s my take on the scheme:

My main frustration is when I cut the alpha patterned paper, I glued down the wrong strip.  The F-K strip had the yellow and orange, both greens plus a bit of red that would’ve tied it all together. Right now I feel like there’s nothing tying the orange and yellow to the rest of the card. And I think my yellow needs some stitching around it…it’s not quite “finished” feeling to me.  But the dandelion puffs with the “make a wish” sentiment? I love! 

Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek.

Sketch: Kristina Werner Online Summer Card Camp, week 1
Cardstock: Creative Memories from my ancient stash
Patterned Paper: Pink Paislee “Hometown Summer”
Stamps:  PTI: Botanical Silhouettes, Fillable Frames 6
Ink: Versamark; Jenni Bowlin Seed Packet; Versafine Onyx Black
Embossing Powder: Michael’s
Other: Xacto scallop edge scissors

No, it’s not an earthquake…

…it’s me, jumping around like one of my kids in excitement.  It may be Brad’s birthday, but I got the presents in the mail today!

Debbie had a give-away on her blog and I won the Botanical Silhouettes set!  It arrived today along with a beautiful card that Debbie made (on the right). I’m so excited!! Just in time for a long, holiday weekend!!! I plan on playing at some point and hopefully will be able to create some wonderful things with it.  Thanks, Debbie, for drawing my name out of the virtual hat!

Mom Tips

From Family Fun Magazine, April 2008 - scoop ice cream into baking cups (cupcake liners) and place them on a cookie sheet into the freezer.  At cake time, pull out the sheet and place one treat on each plate!

How about another recipe for a body scrub? This one, for your hands.  I don't know about you, but I love hand scrubs.  This is a Citrus Hand Scrub and because it must be used immediately, would not be ideal for gifts.  You'll have to pamper yourself.

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup sunflower oil
A few drops of your favorite essential oil
1/2 a lime or lemon

In a small bowl, mix the sugar, sunflower oil and an essential oil. Squeeze the lemon or lime juice into the mixture right before you're ready to use. This is because citrus, if left too long, will melt the sugar crystals. Stir, then rub mixture onto hands and feet, paying close attention to dry spots.  Rinse, follow with moisturizer.