Get Comfy, Get Rest, Feel Better

With all the flu and flu-like symptoms running rampant on planet earth right now, I thought it would behoove my card stash to have some of those kinds of cards at the ready. So I pulled out Karen Lockhart's bathrobe stamp and found some comforting paper that looked like a bathrobe that I would want to wear! Designer paper is more good stuff from K&Company's Wild Raspberry collection. I enjoyed using this new wide scallop Martha Stewart punch, and I added dots on the scallop edge with a white Ink-essentials pen. Too cute! Matches the dots around the heart from PTI Borders & Corners/Hearts set.

Sentiment is also from Karen Lockhart. So is the a-d-o-r-a-b-l-e kleenex box on the envelope. A girl can't have enough Karen Lockhart stash! Bottom of card is stamped with a Denami Design Filigree Stamp - what a neat company! Check 'em out.

Inside of card is finished with a strip of matching designer paper layered over brown cardstock, and sentiment is from PTI's Vintage Picnic Sentiments. If you are sick, let me know.

Thanks for stopping by!

Always In My Heart

I'll have you know we are finally at the last of the last of the notebooks! YAY! I did not procrastinate on doing 50 notebooks at all - no no no! It was fun to do 5 or 10 at a time and then sit back and marvel with satisfaction at the basket full of love! Moral of the story is this: If you are ever asked to do 50 notebooks for a group of Shriner's Ladies, say yeah! Fitting that the last bunch says "Always In My Heart" as that's how I feel about dear friend Debbie, who asked me (a year ago!) to do this project! (Emphasis on dear!)

First, I stamped a Unity Company heart with stem from the September KOM (NOT the store kit - there really are two separate and distinct kits each month). Then I stamped it again onto DP and punched out a heart using the EK Success Medium Heart Punch which coordinates perfectly with PTI's Heart Borders & Corners set. Capeesh? Topped off with a button!

If I know anything about our blogging world, it's that you all can do some serious Woo-Hoo's when a project of any size is done! Since I also have a pretty good idea of how many of you are out there, I absolutely cannot resist gathering our hearts to offer a collective Woo-Hoo for each other's freindships, encouragements, and accomplishments. Not just crafts -- our lives are busy! We all have things on our plate that we are called to do for our friends and families and co-workers and yes, even strangers! But know this -- there is NO SUCH THING as serving in obscurity. It MATTERS. God sees you doing "the thing" day in and day out. And if it's a really crazy day, one spends as many evening hours as needed. To all of you who keep doing "the thing", you're always in my heart!

Just Bee-Cuz

Ever want to do something, just bee-cuz? Then the ladies who receive these notebooks will now have a place to write it down just in case they want to do it just bee-cuz!

I suppose the cutest part of these notebooks are the red polka dots on the blue cardstock, mixed with the colorful papers! Oh, no I'm sorry! I was mistaken. It's the bee, an old Angel Company set that warrants a nod for being too cute!

Oh, no I'm sorry! It's the matching inside cover and the adorable flower punch that stays near my right hand at all times. How is it that the littlest things make us card-makers the happiest?!

I have beans cooking & cornbread baking, along with a fresh apple cake made from apples we recently got from the orchard. Just bee-cuz. Have a super duper day, just bee-cuz!

Happy Funky Fall

This morning, I realized the air conditioning was still on! It's only 43 degrees and looks like it could rain for 40 days and 40 nights! But alas, I LOVE Fall. It's when I become a better me! I DIG sweaters and scarves!This girl is beginning to grow weary of notebooks (it's about time!) so I'm into doing easy peasy here ... as I hit the home stretch toward 50 of them! The sentiment and funky tree is from Unity's Setpember Store Kit, and all I did was stamp it with chocolate chip ink onto some funky K&Company paper and add a few crystals here and there.

The paisley embellishment is from a 12x12 strip of funky scrapbook page dividers by K&Company. I cut them apart and had instant funk for each tree. I think it gives a wind-swept look to the already windy tree!

Inside and back of notebooks - on SU Night of Navy cardstock, stamped with more Unity swirls using PTI Fresh Snow ink. Let the winds blow!

Coffee & Friends

More notebooks! Popular little things arn't they? Today's notebook cover is a paper-pierced coffee cup from Unity's September KOM. I don't even drink coffee (Diet Coke-aholic) but these turned out so cute it makes me want to try a sip!

After trimming with fine-tip scissors, I added some shading with a Cool Gray copic marker and that - my friends - was that! I stamped the image onto the cocoa brown designer paper to get the top of the "coffee cup steam" and then used it as a guide to adhere my cut out design. I really love the saying too!

Inside of notebooks. Hip Hop colors aren't they! Once again, paper from the Wild Raspberry collection by K&Company. Ya think I like it cuz of the name? Kay? Get it? LOL Naw - I just like it cuz I'm a paper hog! Us Wild Hogs have to stick together!

Back of notebooks, personalized after random versamark stamping. What's your perfect blend?

Precious Tears

Firstly, allow me to humbly offer thanks to every sweet precious blogaroonie friend who missed my face during the last few weeks as we prodded through life! My fingers have been busy since my brother-in-law's funeral, both here and at work as I finished off the biggest conference that I do for my job, just last week. O-V-E-R has a nice ring to it! It's timely that I've been blessed to get to know a widow lady over the Summer Scripture Challenge, who is learning more about tears this year than she ever wanted to know! Tears come to her as a period comes to the end of a sentence. It's her birthday, so I made her this set of cards entitled "Precious Tears", each one signifying something different.

Computer generated sentiments: Tears of Sorrow - Tears of Love - Tears of Laughter - Tears of Joy. I enjoyed this paper from the Wild Raspberry collection of K&Company. Makes a dang cute picnic basket from PTI's Vintage Picnic set!

This was my ever-loving first use of the Spellbinders Labels Two Nesties - oh be still my beating heart! Great size and I love the edgy design! I used a Fiskars scallop punch and some cream satin ribbon to finish things off. Bottom edge of card is randomly stamped with versamark.

Might be a little deceiving in the picture, but the set of cards fit nicely in one of PTI's Clearly Creative Card Boxes, which I decorated to match the cards. Tears have a mind of their own. So unexplainable at times. They might even take all the energy you have. The river runs deep. Only YOU know what is deserving of your precious tears. God bless you today and any day that you might have a wet face!