PAPERTREYink. Meets Week 25 Mojo Monday Challenge

I've been thinking about you but haven't had the time to make anything or do a blog post. I think (hope) life is going to settle into a somewhat normal routine now for my family. I've been spending a lot of time with my Dad in Lake Havasu City. When I had to go home this Sunday I felt I just couldn't go and leave him alone so I asked him to come home with me so I could care for him.

...and he said yes.

My friends were spending the weekend at my house taking care of my kids so I called them and told them what I was thinking. They went to work shoveling out my youngest son's bedroom and getting it and the main bathroom ready for my Dad. I was able to join them a few hours later - I came home to people vacuuming and re-arranging furniture, installing new shower heads, curtains, etc., it was quite the sight - ah... someone even scooped out the kitty litter box...

My friend Rick and I returned to Lake Havasu City that evening and picked up my Dad and a recliner chair from his living room and headed for Parker. When we returned to my house later Shari, Gabriel, and Gina were finishing up and taking care of my kids. Rick and Gabriel helped my Dad out of the car and into a wheel chair and got him in the house for me, then they went to work getting his comfy chair into my living room and Dad in it.

Sometimes I'm overwhelmed by God's grace in my life - in my wildest dreams I've never had friends like this and I'm so thankful.

My Dad is resting comfortably this afternoon in my youngest son's bed, he has Prostrate cancer that's spread to his bones. We go tomorrow to Lake Havasu City so he can get a bone marrow biopsy done and some lab work for another treatment another day.

Our lives are changing everyday and I'm grateful for the time I have and the priviledge of taking care of my Dad right now. I don't know if he'll remain with me or what the future will bring and that's okay because I know God's timing is perfect.

How about this card I made today? I like it - getting everything straight was a challenge!

I love the new PAPERTREYink. papers and perfect match inks and ribbon, nice stuff!

Supply List: Cardstock - Nut Brown, Aqua Mist, Spring Moss, White, Everyday Blessing designer paper - Ink - Basic Brown - Stamps - SU Friendship Blooms, SU Small Sayings - Accessories - PAPERTREYink. dotted ribbon, Dew Drops, Brown Brad, Prima flower, Prismacolor Pencils & Gamsol.

Oh it feels good to be doing ordinary everyday things again. I mowed the grass yesterday... the kids first T Ball game is in less than an hour too. My friend Priscilla is coming over to spend a couple of hours with my Dad for me so I can go watch them play.

Hi Everyone,

I won't be posting anything for a few days. I'm in Lake Havasu with my Dad, he hasn't been feeling well so I'm staying with him and helping out.

I'll be back to card making and blogging as soon as he's feeling better.

I do get to play on his computer while I'm here though so I am blog browsing!

See you soon, Jan

SC163 & Valentine Nugget Boxes

I realized a few minutes ago that I have today's sketch challenge done. It's the same day the sketch challenge was posted - Wow, it's been a long time since that's happened! I used Verve Visual's Serenity set for today's challenge with some left over paper from Cindy's altered file folder project from yesterday. It didn't look right square so I made an A6 size card instead, I added some Dew Drops and thought it still needed something so I made a flower to match by coloring a white Prima using a Rose Red ink pad and a smaller yellow Prima with a Summer Sun ink pad. I like the Build A Brads, it was a nice way to finish the flower and tie it all together.
I also finished up several Nugget tins I'm giving for Valentine's Day. I had all my wrappers stamped and the candies wrapped and was waiting for the tins to arrive. I thought it was the safest thing to do for me and the candy during the delay.

I used Stampin' Up! Berry Bliss paper and coordinated the wrapper colors using Purely Pomegranate and Close to Cocoa inks. The stamps for the wrappers are PAPERTREYink. Limitless Labels, the Happy Valentine's Day is from Hero Arts and the stitched ribbon is Stampin' Up! Purely Pomegranate.

This Nugget Tin was a "I wonder what will happen if I..." use a background stamp on that sheet of return address labels? So I tried it with the CHF Diamond Plate backgrounder, it works very well! I also have a Sizzix Diamond Plate embossing folder that I used on the belly band and thought it coordinated well.
This next one is for my friend who keeps eating my green M&M's while babysitting my children! I used a Sizzix die for the heart shapes, Stampin' Up! Word Window punch and a Spellbinder Nestabilities die for the scallops around the little card.

The inside of the Warning label reads:

Important Notice:

Consumption of The Green One's may result in elevated romance levels. If you experience this effect, contact your Significant Other immediately. No Official agency has verified these statements... but what do they know about romance anyway?

That's what it said on the Green M&M's wrapper, it was too cute not to use!

This last one has chocolate covered almonds in it, my friend Gina's favorite. She has the matching pink card with Gina K's cute hippo on it from a previous post.

I've used this Hearts background stamp on several projects lately, it's made by Stamp Oasis and I have it cleaned and put away again for another year.

My first card today is from my friend Stacy in Rochester Minnesota with a quick note to let me know she's going to be in my area the end of this month. I'm excited! I love the colors she used for her card and the layout is very cool. I want to know if the verse on the card front is a stamp and where it came from, I like it.
My next card we C.A.S.E.d from the Verve Visual gallery, it's by Shannon Teubner. I had girlfriends over stamping yesterday, Susan needed a graduation card for her son and we thought the Verve Seeing Stars set would be appropriate, their last name is Starr.

We changed things just a little by using Stampin' Up! Outlaw designer paper and Stampin' Up!s Starstruck set, the cardstock colors are a little different too. Click on Shannon's name and you can see her original artwork.

Then we needed to play with my new Cuttlebug Build A Flower thingie. It's a die with two petals and two circles on it and four little embossing folders to match. We discovered when you get the petals cut out and arranged into a flower it's really BIG! I like making A6 sized cards so that helps a little. Maybe it's for scrapbooking?

We had fun with it anyway...

Supply List: Stamps - PAPERTRYink. Mini Messages, Stampin' Up! French Script, Stampin' Up! Victiorian Lace, Paper - Cranberry, Light Pink, Light Forest, White, Ink - Pretty In Pink, Cranberry, Old Olive, Accessories - Cuttlebug Build A Flower, Quickutz Leaf, Stampin' Up! Oval Punches, Stampin' Sponges.

Gotta go! Tomorrow is Valentine's Day and I need to finish several projects - Have a great day!

A Little Bit Of Happiness & SC162

Do you ever have one of those sketch challenges where you just can't stop? Ahhh, me too! This stamp set is a Stampin' Up! level one hostess set called A Little Bit Of Happiness. I can't remember a time when I've had more fun with a hostess set! How cool is that?!

My friend Gina needed a birthday card for her niece so I had the perfect opportunity to try this sketch challenge. I added the little girls name and Happy Birthday with a Hero Arts stamp, the pink polka dotted panel is a retired Stampin' Up! polka dot background stamp and I had to use the Dew Drops because there were dots elswhere! I colored the images with my Copic markers and used the Copic Spica glitter pens too. The cardstock colors are Pretty In Pink, Real Red, Basic Grey and White.

After I finished that card I had to try another one of the stamps in that set with the sketch challenge. The I Miss You stamp is by Stampin' Up! and retired. I can't seem to keep up anymore with what's retired and what's not, I'm going to enjoy my stamps and not worry about it.

The cardstock colors are White, Pretty In Pink, Elegant Eggplant, Black and Certainly Celery. I used the double photo corner punch on this one to give the last panel a little more definition. I also used the Cuttlebug Script embossing folder and had lots of fun with the Dew Drops this time.

For this next one I got into my scrap box. With Gratitude is actually two Papertrey INK stamps from their Spiral Boquet set.
And of course I couldn't forget Valentine's Day is just a few days away. I made a special order card in purple similar to this today too.

Have a great day!

February Scripture Chicks Challenge

Happy Saturday! This is my entry for the Scripture Chicks card challenge. Each morning I get an e mail devotional from Heartlight, this particular verse, prayer and thought really resonated with me that day so I did what I always do when that happens. I make something fun with it that I can keep to look back at another time.

The prayer was asking God to guard our path and give us good Christian friends to help keep us from deception and the destruction that follows. The thought that day was about all the stains you'd find on laundry day and what nightmares they are, how they aren't just on the surface but infiltrate into the fibers of the clothing. Going on to say that evil is that way and we shouldn't kid ourselves because evil corrupts and leaves a residue that corrupts everything it touches, including our hearts. The final point was that Jesus work on the cross is the only way to clean away the stain of our sin and it's residue.

It made me think of my friends and my faith, how blessed I am and we are to have each other. I have a fullness of life I've never had before and I'm grateful.

I made a pocket card for my bible verse, thought and prayer. The Peachy cardstock is from Bazzill, I matted my text on Always Artichoke and sponged the edges of my white cardstock with Always Artichoke ink. I used the Stampin' Up! round tab punch for tabs so my inserts would be easy to pull out of the card. The patterned paper is made by American Traditional Designs called Guy's Life - Earthtones. The flowers are Primas and I used a Stampin' Up! Rhinestone brad for the center.

The kids and I are off to Lake Havasu soon to visit my Dad and back here again for a Valenine's dinner at the church at 5:00. Have a great day!

I think she'll alter anything...

My project for today is (was) a quick one. Several of my friends have this bible and one in particular has been bringing it to my attention a lot lately. Every time he comes over we get into a discussion and he goes and gets it out of the car to show me something cool he's discovered. Then I end up showing him something equally as profound I've highlighted in a study I'm working on. Two totally different resources saying basically the same thing, I love it!

I've been watching the way God is working in my life lately it's joyful and painful all at the same time. I'm so grateful to be surrounded by the friend's He's put in my life to help me along this journey.

So anyway, I bought myself a new Celebrate Recovery bible and had this wild urge to alter it...
I really only made a cover for it. It's a soft cover book that has a nice cover but I just had to add my own personal touch to it I guess. "grin" I used two sheets of Stampin' Up! Berry Bliss double sided paper for the cover.

The "J" is what's left over from a chipboard monogram made by Rusty Pickle. I used the other part on a project a few posts ago.

I used a brayer with white ink to cover the chipboard first, kind of like a primer coat. I thought it would look good in Pretty In Pink, that didn't really work out so I brayered over it with Close To Cocoa ink. I added a scrap of Pretty In Pink cardstock under the monogram to make it pop.

The stitched ribbon is Stampin' Up! Purely Pomegranate, I used a Build A Brad for the center of the flower and some Dew Drops from the Men's collection.

I must say I do love my Crop A Dile, that's how I punched the holes I needed in the chipboard.

I thought this was kind of fitting since tomorrow is the 8th and it's Scripture Chicks challenge day. I have another little project for that tomorrow.

Ollie's Reading

My card today is one I made a few weeks ago, an expirament to see if I could make a double gate fold like I saw on someone's blog. She found the measurements on her Scor Pal package. I'm sorry I don't remember now who I C.A.S.E.d that day but I like the results!

I've been busy with classes and deadlines and friends this week. The classes are done, deadlines met and the friends are always a blessing. Maybe now I can get back to my regular stamping!

I used retired Stampin' Up! Spring Flowers paper for this card, an eyelet to hold the Hodgepodge Hardware to keep the card closed, the Thinking of You stamp is by Papertrey and the Owl is by Stampendous. I colored the image using my Copic markers.

Have a great day!

Sketch Challenge 161 Technique Lovers Challenge 153

It's been a busy and fun weekend here. Saturday morning I was able to make a quick card using the technique lovers challenge 153 and the sketch challenge 161 for Splitcoaststampers. The technique is called the Dalliah fold. All it takes is a circle punch and folding the circle, you can check out how to do it on Splitcoaststampers under try a new technique on Monday's. I thought SC161 would be perfect for this technique too so I put them together. I used Stampin' Up!s Berry Bliss double sided paper for this card along with Pretty in Pink and Nut Brown card stock. The stamp is made by The Angel Company. I used my Build A Brad finally, I have a new 1/2" circle punch now and the ink is Basic Brown.
We also made it out to an off road race this weekend with friends. It was the Parker 450, an event that happens each year here usually in January. We had a spot right next to the race course. It was pretty exciting, the cars and trucks looked like they were coming right at us at times and would occasionally throw dirt up on us. The kids enjoyed all the dirt!

The weather was really nice for the race, I think it was in the high 60's here. Today was windy and cold! For us anyway.
My last picture is of my kids on a little train that was at the Potpourri this weekend, another annual event in Parker. I was out and about more this weekend than I usually am so I thought I'd show some pictures of what was happening around town.