Karine's Boyfriend

Karine is one of my "God-Friends." These are friends whom God has placed in my life for a special reason. I sold her the first set of stamps she bought on Ebay. She was so nice I thought for sure the sale wasn't going to go through. It did and I remember thinking I wish there were more people that nice in the world. Then later on, we met in person through an online Magenta Yahoo Group in which we both participated. At the time we were about 100 miles apart, one way. How likely is it that our paths would cross, not once, but twice under different circumstances?

Years, laughter, and tears later, we are now friends for life and beyond. We try to see each other as often as possible and have helped each other many times since our friendship finally clicked.  Now, we're only about 75 miles apart--hey every mile counts! When she first came over after I got Rusty, he was smarter than me and hooked up with her instantly; Karine was partial to him too. With both of them, what's not to love! So the last time she was here, he knew her the minute she came in the door and just started wiggling all over and could hardly wait for her to sit down and pet him. Of course, like Quincy before him and Lucy Belle, he is welcome at the scrap table and had to sit in Karine's lap while she worked.

Blessed Card

Such a pretty stamp set. It was an April Stamp of the Month and I love both the greetings in this set of 12. "We are so Blessed" and "If I had a flower for every time I thought of you, I could walk in my garden forever.--Alfred Lord Tennyson." I never knew Tennyson to be the author of this saying. Flowers, Leaves, and Greetings, can we ever have too many stamps???
When I saw this saying, I new I had to make something with it and incorporate the rosebud ribbons in our Designer Ribbons pink collection. Here is my card. The left side is the outside and the right side is the inside of the card. It is the "Sun Dial" design on page 14 of the Close To My Heart Wishes Card Confidence Program book.

For the leaves, I hand cut little ovals out of cardstock scraps, scored and folded them in half. The circle and decorative corners on front greetings and inside panel were created with punches I colored the leaves on the inside panel with Garden Green and then flicked the center protion with Olive for the highlight. The flower's solid part of the stamp was inked with Sunflower ink, and then the lower edges were rolled in Smoothie ink and then stamped. This is so easy to do with totally clear stamps and blocks. Then I used the blending pen and my matching inks to blend out any lines in the flower.

Supplies Used

9033 Wishes Card Confidence Program

D1455 Blessed My Acrylix Stamp Set

X7136B Mayberry Level 2 Paper Pack

1245 Olive Cardstock

Exclusive Inks Markers: Z2337 Olive & Z2320 Garden Green

Exclusive Inks Stamp Pads: Z2114 Cocoa, ZZ2196 Smoothie, & Z2150 Sunflower

Z1384 Pink Designer Ribbon Collection

Z697 Sponge

3174 Blending Pen 

Z608 Scoring Stylus

Other items: Circle punch and Stamping Up corner punch

2011 Floods and Tornadoes Relief Operations, You & Me: Stronger Together

Many of the Close To My Heart Consultants asked if there was something we could do to support those affected by recent severe weather in the United States. The corporate office extended the great May campaign and came up with You & Me: Stronger Together, to raise funds for the survivors of the severe storms that have pummeled the Midwest and Southern states.

During the month of June 2011, order a You & Me kit for only $15 US/$16.50 CAN (a retail value of $34.95/$38.95), and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the American Red Cross 2011 Floods and Tornadoes relief operations. Just hop on over to my website, select "Shop Online" on the top left, and "Stronger Together," lower left to place your order for this sensational kit and help those in need at the same time. The You & Me: Stronger Together campaign will continue until June 30 at 11:59 pm (MDT) or while supplies last.

The You & Me Kits come with neat cardstock-like Background & Texture papers (They have the CTMH Logo printed on a cut-off inventory tab instead of on the paper so it won't get in your way!), Ribbon Mocha Opaques (pearlesque adhesive gems), Irresistibles--chipboard pieces with resist patterns that show through when covered with inks, a GREAT coordinating, D-sized stamp set (I have already used this set for the journaling box and tickets on other layouts and won't be putting it away.), and a colored brochure complete with cutting directions and an exclusive layout pattern so you can create the product with ease.

So I do things a little bit different. Those who attend my workshops will love this--I didn't QUITE understand the instructions and cut the papers wrong. See the striped paper at the bottom? It's not supposed to be striped. It's supposed to be solid pink. But even with a mistake it turns out great. I also add more photos than the layouts call for.

See this bottom row of flags--this are some of the Irresistible flags, sponged with ink. They are separated by Mocha Opaques. Isn't this a clever idea. The little dots are more Opaques scattered on the page. The journaling box and tickets are some of the stamped images.

I added more flourishes on the left page because I got ink smudges on this page. No such thing a mistakes--just room to stamp or embellish. On their samples, they had girls on the other pages and boys on this page. See how versatile the pages are. I enjoyed creating my layouts and even having to make up for my mistakes, I have some papers and Irresitibles left over to make some cards, a few other pages, or other projects with. Too bad I couldn't get a few more hours or energy added to each day.

I'm BACK!

I have had so much happening since I last wrote. If it can go wrong, it has.

I lost my little dog Quincy Jefferson. The silly guy had an eating disorder. He loved eating and ate mouse poison. Contrary to what you read on the web, Yes peroxide will make them throw up and Vitamin K is to stop bleeding, but this does not work--get your dog to the vet yesterday and I pray it works. For us, it wouldn't have mattered had we taken him right after he ingetsted the stuff. He just ate too much. I miss him terribly.

I received so many nice cards from friends who know how much our pets mean to us. This card and plant were from Danica because the plant had spots like Quincy. The beautiful roses were from my friend Eilene.

Being a Christian, part of the problem is the Bible doesn't specifically tell us that we will be reunited with our pets. But as my friend Jo told me one day. She canot believe that a Loving Father would not have her pets there waiting for her knowing how much they mean to her. That made me feel a lot better! Plus, I sometimes think they're little angels here on earth. They seem to make you laugh at just the right time.

Worse still, my very dear friend from high school, Valerie McCain-Field passed away. I can take pleasure in knowing that she is in Heaven and I will see her again. In fact, she LOVED Quincy and that dog looked out for her, I kind of wonder if maybe God took Quincy to meet Val. If that's the case, it makes me feel even better about Q. Valerie suffered a rare, dreadful disease, CNS Vasculitus. I am thankful that she is no longer suffering, but sad that I will miss her for awhile. For now--get that big stamping table read for us all Val, we'll join you soon!

My own health has been frustrating. My thyroid has been out of control and the doctor has just recetly gotten that medication right. Next one of tthe great pain medications still works for the pain, but has been sending me to la-la land where I can easily sleep 16-18 hours a day. There is no energy. I have a fantastic team of doctors and while this won't kill me, it sure frustrates me! Plus our cooler-than-normal weather is not my friend. I hate this factor because the cool weather is so much easier for Ray, who works outside a good portion of the time. Please say a little prayer that the doctors find the magic combo that sends the fibro monster back into it's cave again.

We do have a happy, new addition to our family. I knew Quincy added life to our household, I just never realized how much. He would run around this house and play with Lucy and then come over to me like a kid for a hug and some playing/petting time from me, then get down and go on playing with Lucy or take a nap. Without him here, Lucy stuck to me like glue. She didn't want to leave my side, didn't play; even my old girl Daisy didn't play and stuck pretty close to me. Ray and I knew we needed another furbaby for our home. He found him! In mid April, we adopted Sir Rusty Wiggles Dude!

Here is is with me at the shelter.

Barking at a bird on HIS back porch

Nap time with Ray.

Rusty got his name from a combination of places. Rusty from my friend Karine. Ray kept calling him Dude and because we like to give our dogs last names, he got "Dude" tacked on. To give him some authority we initially added "Mr." Rusty Dude. This was at the time of the Royal Wedding (William and Catherine) so Ray changed Mr to Sir. Then I called and told Ray at lunch one day that we had to add wiggles in there since I had never seen a dog wiggle so as him. He gets so excited and loves to be praised that he just wiggles his little 13-lb self all over the place, and that's how Sir Rusty Wiggles Dude got his name and he definitely has found his forever home!

Artwork coming soon--I promise!