A NEW BEGINNING

With the death of my dear husband, Edward, I am starting a "new beginning".  I miss my loved companion very much, but my life has to go on.  The hardest thing of this journey is knowing that what I create in the future, he will know longer be by my side to critique my art.  They say, and I have to agree, that a person is hardest on themselves in critiquing their own artwork, so hopefully I will be able to not be so judgmental of my own.

Please give me some time to post my new art work within the next couple of weeks, and I do hope you'll enjoy what I am creating.  Thank you for coming back and see you soon.

EMBARRASSMENT & MORAL OF STORY

I ordered some stamps and a pearl pen from Michael Strong Stamps ( www.strongstamps.com ).  I didn't realize at the time why it was taking a bit longer, and pretty soon my order arrived.  The product I received was only a partial order and a bit mixed up, with a note that the rest of the order would be filled and forth coming.  I frantically looked up my order, e-mailed Michael with rather terse messages, and received a nice message back.  It wasn't what I wanted to hear, and started writing another message to him, when I found his phone number and proceeded to call him.  (Boy was I going to rip into him, but when I heard his voice all I could do was to apologize all over myself to he and his wife.)

It seems that my order along with a few others were submitted when Michael's daughter was getting married.  Oh my goodness, I could have fell over when he told me what happened.  Well to make a very long story short, I want to thank Michael and his lovely wife for all of the help they gave me. 

Morale of story, just because you feel you are being short changed and your life is getting in the way, stop and think about the other person and what they might be going through.  Thank you Michael for being the person and the vendor that I thought you originally was and are.  BTW, I got the rest of the products Michael, and am going to have some fun.  Thank you thank you thank you. 

SIGN-UP

for a free Grand Calibur give-away.  Here is the link and be sure to follow the information:

http://www.favecrafts.com/sweeps/Spellbinders-Grand-Calibur-Die-Cut-Machine

Good luck everyone.  Until next time.....

IN A FUNK MOOD

This card is laying on a white napkin, so don't be fooled by the size as it is just a regular size card.  I happen to be blog  hopping the other day and stopped by Sharon Field's blog at www.createdbyu.blogspot.com . 

It's a good thing I saw this, printed a copy of it, as after hearing some sad news, I made this card this morning.  My sad news is that my youngest daughter, a school bus driver who was doing her morning route of picking up kids, was basically run off of the road.  The bus had quite a few kids on it at the time.  She was traveling on a back county road when a personal van came towards her and wasn't stopping.  She pulled over to the side of the road, must have hit some ice, slid into a ditch at a 45 degree angle and hit a telephone pole.  She was badly shaken up, and some of the kids were sent to the hospital.  She'll be okay, but the intense investigation that follows will have her up tight for some time.

If that wasn't enough bad news, I found out that one of two grandsons that is stationed in Afghanistan was injured and sent to Germany to the hospital there.  It seems that my grandson and another army buddy was escorting a couple of reporters to a market place when a suicide bomber  decided to blow himself up.  Thank God my grandson "only" suffered a severe head concussion, some broken ribs & fingers.  It could have been worse, so I'm trying to dwell on the positive, and keep on praying that he recovers okay. I'm also praying that  the US Government decides enough of our young armed forces personnel has been there way too long and bring them all home safely and stop this insane war. 

I guess you might say, I made this card in my grandson's honor.  I hope you'll enjoy and leave a comment.  Until next time......

LOVE - STILL IN THE AIR

I made a couple more valentine cards which are the same, but can you  spot the differences.  Good luck in looking.  Seriously, they are really easy to spot, and don't forget to let me know what you guess. 

So for this post I'll only tell you who made the stamps: Couple - Inkadinkado.  Words - My Sentiments Exactly. 

Don't forget to guess and leave the number of differences in your comments.  Until next time,  enjoy......

LOVE IS IN THE AIR

We have a lot of snow on the ground, and it is cold outside, so this is the perfect time to have a cozy fire, and curl up with my husband.  Not....  I did  have my Amish Fireplace on in my studio to help keep me warm, but I was stamping away, not cozying up to my husband.  I will say he did come in and choose the cards that he liked best...LOL

The little mice are the ones I like best, and they were created with a stamp from Stampabilities and colored with my DerWent watercolor pencils.  The top center mice are mounted on a pinkish colored card stock and then mounted onto an orange/pink/black "Puffs" (like in hankie) box strip which was mounted onto white card stock.  The other mice were just mounted onto the pinkish colored card stock and/or then mounted onto a strip of paper.  The bottom right card was created with a Cuttlebug background on the pink and the white card stock.  A tinted heart was mounted onto the white card stock which was mounted onto a "Puffs" (like in hankie) box strip.  The stamps used on this card were from (heart) Stampabilities and the word was stamped using a 7gypsies hand stamp.

The card to the right was created using red card stock layered onto white card stock.  Gold lettering spelled out Love on red card stock which was mounted onto white card stock after placing a white sheer ribbon on the red card stock.  I used my Martha Stewart punch to create a border which I mounted a piece of red card stock on the reverse side.

I hope to create a few more valentines and I will share them with you.  Thank you for leaving a comment if you care to.  Until next time....

POST CARD SWAP

On the Inky Fun Stampers yahoo group, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/inkyfunstampers/ , our moderator, Nancy Dees has posted a Post Card Swap, and these will be my entries.  The top left one is an Oriental looking post card and was embossed with the Forest Branches Cuttlebug folder, then stamped with images from All Night Media. 

The top center post card had Alcohol Inks smooshed onto glossy card stock, then stamped with flowers with die cut flowers affixed atop of the stamped flowers.  The flowers which is a stamp from VAP Scrap.  The square word stamp is from Great Impressions, and the smaller word stamp is from  Hero Arts. 

The post card in the upper right hand corner has Alcohol Inks smooshed onto glossy card stock.  The flat and fireworks were stamped onto a piece of transparency film and affixed with clear glue.  The word stamp is from Hero Arts.  (I'm sorry but I don't remember where I got the die cut "grateful" from.)  I was going for a "patriotic theme" with this post card.

The bottom left I used a piece of clip art that I had laying around for ages, so I'm sorry, but I don't remember how I got this one.  I affixed a "green gem" atop the harp, with a silk flower affixed at the bottom.  Here I was trying for an "Irish theme" post card.  Nothing else was added, and will leave up to my partner if she/he wants to add anything.

The bottom center post card I adhered a map piece that I applied distress ink to.  I stamped the couple with Memories Black Ink, colored them in and affixed a "purplish" gem to the ladies hat.  The words "favorite and escape" I received from a good friend and to me this was the "right" place to use these. 

The bottom right post card was embossed with Forest Branches by Cuttlebug, and of which I made them look like Arizona's Ocotillo plants which I think are one of the prettiest flowering plants there is.  When there is no water for these plants, the "flowers/leaves" fall off and all you have left are stark reminder of what "was" there.  I stamped the "practising" cowboy, shooting at a sign, of which the stamps are from I Brake For Stamps.  I affixed a "white" flower to the bottom right as it reminded me of the flowers in AZ that bloom only at night.  The bottom border are flowers that you press on, and I'm sorry I don't remember the name of these. 

I hope you enjoyed my ramblings of my Post Card swaps photos, and if you wish please leave a comment.  Until next time.............