December RAKs

In December for Courtney's Monthly RAK Club, I had just gone to a Stamp A Stack class at my Stampin' Up Demonstrator's house and we made some gorgeous cards!! So, I sent three of those and a previously made thank you card to my partner. Here's a picture of them ~



What I received in December was AMAZING!! My partner, Ilene Murphy, sent me a big package full of goodies!! There was a gorgeous card with a Hanna (I think) stamp on it, a coaster calendar for 2008, a photo frame, 3 Studio G stamps, an embellished pen, 2 rolls of ribbon, a dazzling embellishment, some lovely wide ribbon (not shown in picture) and two chocolate Santas (only one in picture because I devoured the other on the way home from the mailbox!!!!)

Winter Stamp-a-Stack

I went to my SU demo's house a few weeks ago for a stamp-a-stack class. We were going to make some winter themed card. Wow!! They were gorgeous!! And several of them used Lovely as a Tree, which I just happened to have just purchased!! I am soooo excited to reproduce more of these beauties!! Lynne is so creative!! And she also showed us how to mask, which I have been looking forward to!

This is the one we used the mask on. Stamps are Lovely as a Tree. I forgot to put sentiments on this one, so it is a nice, simple blank card.

This one was done with Noble Deer and Lovely as A Tree. Another with no sentiment, but this time it was supposed to be that way. :)

The next set I changed up the sentiment on them, and the matting a little bit, so each one is just a little different. This was the original design ~

Warm Wishes

Warm Wishes

Thinking of You

This next set is similar, in that I changed it up a bit by putting a different sentiment on each one. And, as you can see, this card also used Lovely as a Tree.

Thank You

Best Wishes

Wish Big

Love You

My Favourite Things

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favourite things

Cream colored ponies and crisp apple streudels
Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
These are a few of my favourite things

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Silver white winters that melt into springs
These are a few of my favourite things

When the dog bites
When the bee stings
When I'm feeling sad
I simply remember my favourite things
And then I don't feel so bad
[Repeat all verses]

A Star in Iraq or What the Media Doesn't Tell Us

This was originally posted to my MySpace blog on Jan 13, 2007 but I have recently received it several times via email, so I thought I would put it up here as a more permanent tribute to our troops.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please feel free to copy it at any time and pass it on, as the original author states below.

Sheri
proud disabled veteran, USA, USAR, USANG
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Subject: A Star in Iraq
11-21 unknown

Posted on 11/21/2006 8:15:05 AM PST by rawcatslyentist
TOPICS: History; Military/Veterans; Society
KEYWORDS: IRAQ

This, my friends, is worth sharing with the WORLD! Go for it!!

This is something that you'll never see in the news. Please keep this going. Nothing will happen if you don't. The American public need to see pictures like this and needs to realize that what were doing over there is making a difference. Even if it is one little girl at a time.

James Gates U.S. Navy

This, my friends, is what we need to remember. Here is a tough, but heartwarming story and a picture of John Gebhardt in Iraq.

John's wife, Mindy, related that this little girl's entire family was executed. The insurgents intended to execute her also and shot her in the head but they failed to kill her. She was cared for by John's hospital and is healing up, but has been crying and moaning. The nurses said John is the only one who seems to calm her down, so John has spent the last four nights holding her while they both sleep in that chair. The girl is coming along with her healing.

*He is a real Star of the war and is representative of what America is trying to do. End of original story

More pics ~




This one's from John's own article

Air Force Link

Confirmation of story on snopes.com

Merry Tossmass!!!!

I've been tagged!!!

Oh My!! I can hardly believe it!! I feel like I've just been initiated into the world of blogging!! I have been tagged. And by none other that Kim Hughes!! The wonderful, talented artist with her own line of stamps available through Cornish Heritage Farms.

Here's what I'm supposed to do ~
• Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
• Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog, we all want to know them.
• Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
• Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

So, here goes ~

1~ I have 2 cats, 1 dog and a foster cat. :)
2~ My immediate family (parents and siblings) live in 7 different states!
3~ I was a medic and a nurse in the Army.
4~ I have homeschooled my son for all but 1.5 years of his school career. He is in 8th grade now.
5~ I like to eat peanut butter and jelly on my pancakes.
6~ I love the smell of gun oil and carbon.
7~ I bait my own hooks when I go fishing, and I don't complain about it.


Now, I am going to tag ~

1~ Maria of Card Inspired (her stuff is great and she is sooooo helpful!!!!)
2~ My friend and new blogger Erin with Stampin Stuff 4 U (her kids have been in my preschool classes and lived to tell!!)
3~ Sandy of It's a Colourful World (she does amazing things for the heroes in our world!!)
4~ Lorie Ames of Live, Love, Laugh, Create (she's just an all-around wonderful person & talented crafter)
5~ Courtney Fowler of Created by Courtney (she sponsors really great RAKs and stuff!!!)
6~ Wanda Pettijohn of My Creative Corner (who willingly shares her creative genius with us all!!!)
7~ Angel Wilde of Angelosity (she is one of the most generous people I know!!!)

If some of you have been tagged recently, I am sorry. Try to have fun with it, and know you are admired - that's why I picked you!!!

Soldier Cards & Stockings and a Great Give~Away!!!

I know it's been a long time since we made these (Nov 9 to be exact!), I am slow on the posting lately. This is a wonderful time of year but also a very hectic and busy time of year!!


Our 4H club has begun a tradition of making Christmas/Holiday Stockings for Marines who are stuck on base (illness, injury or out-processing) during the holidays. They are not allowed to travel home for the holidays, so the Marine Moms Online group has a great Holiday project every year and we help out by making stockings. This was our second year. Here are some of the stockings.

These were made by Arielle (11) and Breonna (13) Clark and their mom Deanna.

These are the ones I made with a little help from my son Ryan(13).

These were made by Rebecca (15), Cassandra (13) and Victoria (18) Petty and their mom Francie (our 4H club leader).

After we finished 152 stockings, we set to work on making hand stamped cards. One for each stocking! This project is very near and ear to our hearts as we have several people with service members in their family within our club, as well as myself being a veteran.

Here's Ryan starting on his cards.

He really enjoyed my military stamps from Crazy Mountain Stamps .

He used the Marine ones with gusto!! I was sooo proud of him for jumping in with all of us girls!!!
Speaking of crafty sons, Erika over at Stamping Mama Designs is helping to host One of the BIGGEST Give-Aways EVER! This is a 9 x 12 inch work on a canvas wrapped frame done with acrylics and is signed on the back by Zach (her son) himself!!! This is all being done to help promote a great Autism charity - Autism Support Daily . Some of you may know that I was a para professional for an autistic first grader when I first moved to Colorado. I really loved that job!! I love working with differently abled people - they are such a blessing!!! My grandmother who raised me was a foster home for "handicapped" children for 34 years. I was blessed to grow up around some of the most wonderful children anyone could ever know!!

So, get on over there and support Autism Education!!!!

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming :)

The cards we made.........
will have to wait. I have to go return my rental car (yet another story) - I will post the cards later, I promise!!!

Right Between The Eyes

Ever read something that hits you right between the eyes??? Yah....... Well, try this one on for size (came in an email today from my dear friend Mariane)..... and pass the ice pack......

~Something to Ponder at Christmas Time ~
1 Corinthians 13 Christmas Version

If I decorate my house perfectly with plaid bows,
strands of twinkling lights and shiny balls,
but do not show love to my family,
I'm just another decorator.

If I slave away in the kitchen,
baking dozens of Christmas cookies,
preparing gourmet meals and
arranging a beautifully adorned table at mealtime,
but do not show love to my family,
I'm just another cook.

If I work at the soup kitchen,
carol in the nursing home,
and give all that I have to charity,
but do not show love to my family,
it profits me nothing.

If I trim the spruce with shimmering angels
and crocheted snowflakes,
attend a myriad of holiday parties and
sing in the choir's cantata,
but do not focus on Christ,
I have missed the point.

Love stops the cooking to hug the child.
Love sets aside decorating to kiss the husband.
Love is kind, though harried and tired.
Love doesn't envy another's home that has coordinated Christmas china and table linens.
Love doesn't yell at the kids to get out of the way,
but is thankful they are there to be in the way.
Love doesn't give only to those who are able to give in return but
rejoices in giving to those who can't.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails.

Video games will break, pearl necklaces will be lost, golf clubs will rust.
But giving the gift of love will endure.

Merry Christmas!

-- Author Unknown

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And to that may I add Happy HolyDays!!!

November COTM

I joined a Colorado Stampers group on Yahoo and we managed to squeeze in a round of Card of the Month before the holidays hit. I had so much fun making the card I sent! I had a bit of a challenge getting the background just the way I wanted. I was stamping on a plain ivory card. The first one seemed too busy, the second one seemed like the images were too big. I had already picked what I wanted on the card, so the background stamping had to be just right. Here's the final product ~

This is what I made out of the "rejects" ;) My mentor has taught me that there are no "mistakes" you cannot fix!!

And here is the lovely card I received ~

She even stamped on the back of it!!

Mojo Monday ~ Word Wednesday

I really liked Julee's sketch for Mojo Monday, so I tried it out. The only problem was I really wasn't up to a square card. I didn't feel like cutting one, I didn't have an envelope for one (and I prefer to be able to use all my cards to give to someone) and I didn't feel like making one. Pretty grumpy, eh? Well, I was doing this on the heels of a two day migraine and a week long toothache. :) So, I improvised a little and this is what I came up with.

The sentiment is one of my favorite stamps from PSX - I found it on Ebay, of all places! And it fits with Creativity {unbound}'s Word Wednesday's Challenge! WoooHoo! How cool is that? That have a lot of fun stuff going on all the time, you really should check them out!

As usual, I just threw together a little of this and a little of that. The stamps however are SU A Tree for All Seasons and the punch was Fiskars Lace punch.

Running Straight To Heaven

I found out today that my mom's beloved little dog, Bobo, slipped away from her at a rest stop Monday and was hit by a car. It is a tragic story, my heart is aching for my mom. I cannot seem to stop crying. She is heartbroken and so far away form all the family right now. But she is being surrounded by and with the love of her internet family. One of her readers left the most beautiful comment. It is reproduced here. I sure hope Joan will find this and get in touch with me. I cannot thank you enough for your kind words of comfort to my mom.

Dear Donna,

I just wanted to say how terribly sorry I am about the loss of your dog. It is a horribly painful thing to go through.

Just from reading your blog, it's obvious you gave Bobo all the love and care a dog could want while he was here. The fact that you were literally sick when it happened says volumes about how much he meant to you.

Speaking as a fellow dog owner, there is just no way that you can be in control of everything every minute. I dropped one of my dogs' leashes just yesterday, and the same tragic thing could have happened, or could happen next time.

If it did, I would try to remember that my dogs (both rescued, as I seem to remember your Bobo was) have had good lives that they otherwise very likely wouldn't have enjoyed. Also, that there's no way of knowing what the alternate scenario would have been. There could have been illness or some other kind of unavoidable suffering.

As it was, Bobo surely couldn't have known what was about to happen, since dogs can't really think into the future, or know that something's about to happen because they've heard about it happening to somebody else.

All he could have known was that he was having one of the peak experiences of a dog's life - getting loose and running as fast as he could wherever he wanted to go! And the next moment he was in heaven, just as though he had run straight there. (Most people don't realize this, but there's even a couple of places in the Bible that talk about animals and heaven.)

And how noble of you to have had the grace and generosity, even in the midst of that kind of awful shock, to forgive the driver of the car. That may have saved her from being traumatized for the rest of her life.

I hope that you will be as easy on yourself as possible and give yourself every break you can while you're healing from this heartbreaking experience.

You are doing wonderful things with your life and are a great inspiration and example, and I know I'm one of many whose prayers and best wishes are with you.

Sincerest sympathy,

Joan

November RAK aka "Courtney's Monthly RAK Club"

Wow!!! This is my first participation in a RAK exchange and I am floored by what I received!! I am so terribly late in posting it (I took the picture on the 17th), I feel so ungrateful - but I am not. I was sooooo excited to see what I was given. My RAK partner ~ Danielle Marcus of American Fork, UT ~ was so incredibly generous, I was just amazed!! In the picture you can see the beautiful card she made, along with two sets of clear stamps and a bottle of Liquid Pearls. I haven't had a chance to use any of it yet, but I plan to very soon!! I cannot say enough - thank you thank you thank you!!! (and I thought RAKS were just about card exchanges!)

WCS28 ~ With Sympathy

Over at Fresh and Fun, Beate released her regular weekend sketch for us to play around with. I am probably the latest to post mine. :) Unless some early bird gets up and posts theirs before 9 am. But I knew I wouldn't be up that early!

I had a bit of trouble with this one, since I don't have any circle or oval punches or embellishments. Luckily I do have some stencils for cutting photos. So, I thought about using those to make layers. What I used for the embellishment - well, that was originally a machine made card. ;) I put the stencil over it, traced and cut! It looks like there's a big wrinkle in the paper, but there really isn't. It must be y poor photography. ;)

I unfortunately had need of a sympathy card. So, I made this one especially for her. One of my dearest friends lost her younger (teen) sister this past weekend. It is still being sorted out. Prayers would be greatly appreciated!

JBWW ~ Marine

This week's challenge from JBWW was to make a black and white card with a splash of color. I looked at a few samples, but did not have a large stamp like several of them had used. Luckily, I have these great military stamps from Crazy Mountain Stamps that look great in black ink on white cardstock! Add a little red ribbon and Real Red SU marker and Voila! I will be sending this out this week to some "lucky" Marine. Inside it says "Thank you!"

Ting-a-Ling & a HoHoHo'Lotta Bling!

Sponsored by Terri Conrad Designs

Check out her blog too!!

Come play!!! You can post on her blog every day between now and Nov 24th. Each day a winner will be chosen and the next day the winner's name will be posted to the blog and prize will be awarded!! Have fun.....

Blog Candy!!!

I just found a new blog, Erika Designs!! I added it to my Google reader (only the BEST way on the planet to keep up with all your favorite blogs - no more missing challenges or blog candy or anything else!!!) and entered to win a great prize!! All you gotta do is visit her blog, post which A Muse product is your favorite, then provide a link back to her blog on yours!! Easy Peasy. My favorites are Birch Trees and Deer Pals.

Angel's Weekly Sketch and DP Challenge

I decided to do two challenges at once again. I had been planning to do Angel's Weekly Sketch challenge than I saw that over at JBWW, Sherry had issued a designer paper challenge. So, I figured, what the heck? I'll combine them. Easy peasy says I, right?

Well, I pulled out what I wanted to work with and set to work. Problem was, the DP I picked wasn't long enough for the strips on the side of this sketch.


So, I turned the card sideways. I sure hope that works for you, Angel. I did "faux" stitching with a silver gel pen and used my brand new photo corner punch for the sentiment part!! But if not, not to worry. I wanted to make two cards for these challenges anyway. :) So here's the second one!!






I really had fun with this one. The "stitching" is a stamp from my Thinking of You set. The paw prints I stamped were done in Handsome Hunter. I don't usually color, but I decided to with this one. I used my SU markers for the dog house and bow, then decided to do another bowl and put it on top for a little dimension. The picture's not very good, but the darker strip is actually a hunter green and the doghouse is Always Artichoke. The dog bowl and roof of the dog house is Real Red.


I didn't even realize I was doing it in Christmas colors also. So I guess I kinda' ended up with a non-traditional Christmas card, if I put a Merry Christmas sentiment inside. Right now they're both blank inside. Very useful that way!

Rosey Our Foster Kitty

She appeared one evening on our porch. We had heard about her from the neighbors down the street. They had reported seeing a small Maine Coon looking cat that had been injured somehow. They said it smelled bad, was terribly matted, held it's head crooked and walked kind of sideways. They called it "Sideways kitty." They managed to capture it so I could bring it down to the Max Fund No-Kill Animal Adoption Center, but it was not to be. I was unable to get confirmation regarding our cat capacity. Our friends let the sideways kitty go and it disappeared for several months.

August 20th, she showed up at our place. I was recuperating from ankle surgery, but made it out to the porch where Vance was getting acquainted with her. She didn't look as bad as our friends had described, but we were pretty sure it was her. They had described her as looking like a baby "Tigger" (a neighborhood cat) and she definitely looked like Tigger coulda' been her daddy. She was a tiny thing, not smelly, but certainly matted, and starving. Vance and I gave her some food and some loving and decided to see what would happen. By the third night, we had agreed that we would put her in Harley's kennel and bring her to MaxFund.

We got her down there the next day, but they were too full and could not take her. Since Ryan and I are volunteers there, they asked us if we could hold onto her over the weekend, when they were having a big adoption event. They figured they would have room for her after that. So, she came into our house on Thursday August 23. She stayed until the next Tuesday, then she went to the shelter for treatment.

Rosey taking over the nurse's station at MaxFund

She had definitely been hit by a car. She had neurological deficits, she seemed to have some hearing and sight loss on one side and she has serious balance issues. We had bathed and groomed her, but she was still a pitiful looking thing. She stayed at MaxFund for about 2 weeks. She started out doing better with treatment, but after a while got depressed (we think, it's somewhat typical)and stopped eating. So we brought her home at 4.25 pounds. She quickly found a favorite spot.......






She has since moved up to 5.5 pounds and most recently 6.25 pounds. She is doing so much better and looking so much better than when she first came to be with us. The transformation is amazing!! I will try to find an old picture and post some before and after shots but for now all I have are pics of her looking good! :) She finally has gotten past her need for pure survival and has begun to play. She races around chasing nothing, as well as the various cat toys we have that the older boys have given up on.

She still has problems with vomiting from time to time. And when she gets that way she gets nauseous and doesn't want to eat, so she needs special treatment. Our latest adventure has been giving her shots of anti-nausea medicine. Hopefully that won't last long since she has started eating again (after 2 days without!!).

Beginnings....ends....

I got all the posts (that I wanted) moved over from nannyventure - so it is now gone. It is no longer in my sig line in my emails either. Everything that was there is here- and more. :) I will try to keep this more up to date. With that in mind, here is that latest picture of Ryan. I took it in my friend's back yard. It's his "official" school photo for the year. I get a kick out of taking his "school pictures" myself. :)

Old cards...

I am so behind on posting cards I have made, I am just going to put up a bunch of pictures with a little description. :) These are all cards I made to use for soldiers' birthdays and other occasions. Some times I get the request for the birthday card so close to the birthday, that by the time the card will reach the soldier, it will be late. So all of these are your basic "blank" cards. They are patriotic or at the very least not feminine in design and they might say "hello" or "thinking of you" on the front, but no actual "Happy Birthday" ones.









I made them in sets of four or five with pre-made cards and envelopes. I was trying to get a bunch made up so I could be better prepared when the requests for cards come in and not fall behind. :) I got this great lighthouse stamp that I thought would be really good for all the masculine cards I need to make. So I made a bunch with it. Slight variations.....








I also like to use nature stamps in my cards for guys. Trees, leaves, etc., as you can see. When I ran out of the lighthouse images I had stamped, I made these with the rest of the pre-made cards.