Winter Wonderland!

Ok, so no Winter Wonderland here in NEPA.  Not that I mind!  It's been GORGEOUS here.  Last week the temperatures were in the 60's!  I LOVE it.  Certainly makes up for the deep freeze we experienced last winter!

So what's a girl to do to get into the Christmas spirit when it feels more like spring?  Make Christmas cards of course.  And that's pretty much what I've been doing since I received my Holiday Magic Stamp of Approval box from Catherine Pooler.  I'm addicted to all the wonderful goodies in this box!  It certainly has inspired me to make my cards this year.  I can't even begin to count how many I've made, but it's many!  Perhaps I should do another post with all the cards I've made from this collection!  I've posted some of them to Instagram.  You can find me here on Instagram.

This last card I made comes from some inspiration from Amy Rysavy.  I've been inspired by Amy for years.  Such a talented card maker and SUPER WOMAN!  I believe she really does have super powers  - I don't know how she does what she does, but I am glad she does it!  It keeps people like me inspired.

So a few weeks back she posted this card for the Simon Says Stamps DieCember Blog Hop.  It totally inspired me to play with the snowflake dies from CAS-ual Fridays.  Plain and simple, but yet the effect is stunning  - well, at least in my book it is!

Thanks ladies for inspiring me!

On a roll.......

I read Jennifer McGuire's blog post the other day about monochromatic stamping.  If you haven't read it or checked out her video, you should,  She is just so inspiring!

While monochromatic stamping is not something new to me, her video gave me yet another idea on what to create with my Stamp of Approval Holiday Magic Box.  So I pulled out some coordinating Close to My Heart Ink and my stamps and created this.

What a quick and easy way to get a few cards done at once!  Definitely helped me increase my Christmas Card stash!

Two for the price of one!

Got two cards accomplished tonight for week one of Jennifer McGuire's Share Handmade Kindness Challenge;.

The inspiration for my first card came from  CAS(E) this Sketch! Sketch 147.

The sketch was pretty simple and I thought went really well with this cute little Cuddly Salutations stamp set from Close to My Heart.

Here is the sketch:

 And here is my card.

The second card I made tonight is just a fun "Hello" card with some colorful hybrid ink stamp colors from Simon Says Stamp and a sentiment from the Simply Sentimental  set by Newton's Nook Designs.

These are both going out in the mail tomorrow to some very special people! Hope it makes them smile!

Thanks for looking!

Let's be thankful and kind this November!

November, the month to be Thankful.

Now thanks to Jennifer McGuire, it's also the month to be kind!

So, being tired of being surrounded by darkness, I decided to open my heart and take this challenge. Maybe it will help heal my broken heart, maybe it will help divert my attention away from the negativity that surrounds me.  It certainly can't hurt, that's for sure!

Jennifer's first weekly challenge for the month was to focus on sharing any kind of handmade kindness with family and friends.  There are several things that came to mind for this challenge, and I hope to get them all accomplished this week, but the first thing I wanted to do was send my son some homemade baked goodies so let him know how proud I am of him.  He's in his first semester at college and he's adjusted well, loving his classes and working hard.  He loves to eat and I mean EAT. If it ain't nailed down, he'll eat it.  So I baked him some homemade cookies last night.  Homemade pumpkin cookies with cinnamon glaze to be exact!  Here they are cooling on the rack.

I decided also to make a card to pack with the cookies so I could write a little note letting him know I proud I was of him.  I used this awesome set found in Catherine Pooler's Stamp of Approval Holiday Magic Box.  Unfortunately the box is sold out, but this set should become available to everyone sometime is 2016.  Even though it's a "holiday" stamp set, I thought this border was perfect for a non holiday card.  I teamed it up with Hero Arts Ombre Ink.  Love how it turned out!

This was everything right before it got packed up.  I shipped it this morning and by Thursday they should be delivered to my son.  I'm sure they will be gone within an hour!  As long as he's happy!

I am

Here's another art journal page using Journal52's week 39 prompt which was, "I am."

I gave a lot of thought to this one.  I am many things.  I am a mom, I am a wife, I am a friend, I am a sister, I am a daughter, I am an Aunt, I'm funny, I'm generous, I'm broke, I'm just so many things.

But above all else, since my mom's passing...I am lost.

So that is what I chose to depict in this entry.  Hopefully I'll find my way soon!

A Tradition

Just a quickie tonight to announce that the tradition continues.

Every year I make my friend, Lynda, a Halloween card.  She has every one that  I have ever made her, and takes them out every year to display in her office.  I hope she likes this year's card!

The supplies are just all older product I had in my stash.  No new Halloween stuff this year :(  Got a hefty tuition bill to pay!  I have to say that I think my favorite part of this card is the Glossy Accents on dracula's hair to make it look sleek and shiny!

Hope in Darkness

Me again, playing in my art journal. Another very cathartic layout for me, and another tissue alert for those that read this post.  I'll keep it brief.

Some 23 years ago, I began a job as a paralegal in a state youth and family services division. There  I met a gregarious woman name Trish.  It was obvious that Trish was opinionated, smart, and a LOT of fun!  We became quick friends, a friendship that would span over two decades.  A lot changed over those 20+ years.  I left that job, got married, had children, moved out of state,and started a new career.  During that time, our friendship remained constant.  It wasn't that we had to talk to each other every day, we would speak every couple of weeks, and make plans to get together and just enjoy each other's company.  She and her husband were family - heck, her husband is my daughter's Godfather, so you can see our lives were intertwined.

Trish retired and moved to the beach..a move she had talked about for years.  I spoke with her just a month ago, she was loving her beach life as much as always and we were trying to make plans to get down there.

Then I got the terrible news.  Trish had lung cancer.  I was devastated, my family was devastated. We prayed and waited for updates.  Unfortunately, less than a week after getting the diagnosis, she was gone.  Her poor heart was too weak to undergo any treatment.  I never got the final chance to tell her how much I loved her, how much she meant to me and my family and to thank her for being a part of my life.

I got that terrible news on Sunday and went upstairs and started on this page. I did it for Trish - she loved to garden and had quite the green thumb. I could spend hours writing about her, but it's still just too fresh.  She was such a fun person, had a big heart, and loved life.  My hope is she knows how much she meant to me!

Love you Trish!