PA thank you

As usual, I was behind schedule. I knew I wanted to make cards that my pastor and his wife could send people, but I didn't think about the card FOR them to express our appreciation, until a day or two ago. Our church has a "Fall Fun Night" every October 31st, so I had a meal today, and was still putting together the box for the cards and deciding which cards to include in addition to the ones I'd made for them. So, this photo isn't even of the final product ... I realized after downloading the pictures that it needed some balance (I had to place the thank you where I did to cover up a portion of ruined card; because of waiting until last minute, I decided to remake a card, and this one had a ruined text portion, so I removed it, and it was not "kind" to the card. I was glad that I had a spare leaf to match that covered up what the thank you circle did not! Anyway, I added a button & ribbon to the top left corner, which gave it a much more finished look. Unfortunately, by that time, we had to leave, and the glue had not even dried yet, so there was no use taking a picture!

hymn in vellum

"Like a River Glorious" is my pastor's wife's favorite hymn. (In making them a set of cards for Pastor Appreciation, I wanted to make some cards that reflected their preferences, even though they'd be giving them away). I printed the hymn out several times in different sizes on parchment paper, but just could not come up with something I liked.

A few days earlier I had taken apart a card I had made for a SALT challenge, because of an error in the text. I had really liked the card, and had several other similar backgrounds. I was going to see if I could remake the SALT card, and perhaps make a few other cards with the same method. I had left it in a pile on the counter, and as my glance fell on it, I realized it would work perfectly with a hymn!

The vellum, by the way, 17# UV/ULTRA II Thin (tissue-like), radiant white, is from Marco Paper, and is wonderful for images that you want to see clearly through, and also be able to print on. Ink will not dry well on some vellums, but this one works very well.

Text is computer generated.

smARTworks "Tea party" challenge

This challenge comes courtesy of smARTworks.

Time to post the next T-party Challenge. This one comes to us from Trish, and as far as challenges go, it falls into the category called "inspirational." ANYTHING taken from the piece is fair game for one's creative muse -- color, layout, subject matter, style, theme, etc.

I love challenges, but occasionally I don't manage to satisfy the challenge and make a card that I would actually want to send someone or sell ... this is definitely one of those cards!

One problem I had was I used the corner punch on the two texts, planning to find more green (the warmer tone on the bottom, matching the floor in the picture) to back them with, instead of putting it across the bottom. Unfortunately, that one scrap was all I had! I have a lot of shades of green, but none that came close to that one.

But, I had fun with the challenge, so I'm glad I did it anyway! To me, the main purpose of a challenge is to get myself thinking in fresh directions. So in that sense, they're always a success. :-) I didn't glue anything, so I will put some parts in my scrap drawers, and use most of the stamped images in another card. :-)

Tuesday is election day...

My sister in law, knowing my concerns about the upcoming election, shared with me an idea that I think has real merit. I'm sure many of you would agree with me that she has really hit on something. For some reason, the text is blurred. It reads: "Sick of all the election controversy? Wish there was a candidate we could all support?"

Here's the card she sent me:

And her candidate:

Ordination Card

Again, for pastor appreciation. It was nice to make a completely different design!

Pastor Appreciation card

For the past couple of years, I've wanted to give a set of handmade cards to my pastor and his wife for Pastor's Appreciation. Although I have plenty of cards at any time, as I would rotate the stock in the store in which I sold cards, I wanted to have cards that I made specifically for them. I decided that this year, if I hadn't made any cards by the end of October, I would just select from my stash. Well, despite the store having closed in the middle of September, life has been unbelievably busy, so it still hasn't quite happened. However, I did finish this card yesterday, which I did specifically with our pastor in mind. He has quoted this saying several times, so I know he likes it.

Deer can be dear, but may cost us dearly...

My son hit his first deer the other day; it was opening day for bow season in NY, and the deer are really wacked out. Cost will be $2,000 for repair, ouch! But still, it's impressive that he went his first year and a half of driving without having any incidents at all!

I still love deer, even as much damage as they can cause on the roads! We have some decrepit apple trees that they love to visit, so we seem them quite often in our own yard. We never tire of it!

Edit: Thank you, Jacki, for requesting clarification, lol! Yes, Stephen is just fine, it was the jeep and not the son that will cost $2,000 to fix! He was driving a bunch of students back from a frisbee tournament, so we're grateful there were no injuries!

Recycling

Now that the store in which I sold cards is no longer, I'm getting around to taking apart and/or re-creating cards that just seemed too basic, or just needed a little adjusting. (Some I had withdrawn from my stock a couple of years ago and not done anything with!) I also used to line dark cards with paper, now I prefer to cut the dark cardstock to the size of white or cream card and affix it on top. It looks better on the inside, and means the writer can use the back of the card if he/she would like to. So, I have taken out those cards as well to re-make.

This is a re-make of one of my favorite cards; I just love the saying!

Ordination card re-make

I was asked to re-create an ordination card that I had made some months back, using silver instead of gold, and adding something that would reflect the recipient's added ministry with guitar. It also needed to be larger as a number of people were to sign it. I love music, and have a bunch of music stamps, but it never occured to me to get a guitar stamp! Living in the middle of nowhere, I couldn't rectify that in time to create the card, but I replaced the narrow strips of cardstock with silver cord to give an effect of guitar strings (Wow, that was a nuisance, lol - elastic cord is not easy to attach: it doesn't lie limp like string or ribbon!).

Christmas is coming!

My mom comes down each fall to make her "secret recipe" for fruitcake with my daughter Susannah, the only other person now who knows the recipe! For those of you who are thinking "Why would anyone want to make fruitcake?", my mother's recipe really is awesome. I think most fruitcake is really cardboard with gunky colored things in it, but my Mom's fruitcake is something to be fought over! Honest!

But it's going to be a busy couple of days for me too, as she has asked me to make 4o of these Noel cards for her. I was horrified to realize as I started on them the other day that I had no more of the cream colored cardstock I needed to make them. I had a package of 40 8.5 x 11 beige cardstock, but I did not realize it was from a paper auction, and was NOT what I needed. It's a very thin cardstock, and the embossed image shows through. I have enough of another cardstock, but it is much, much lighter than what my mom is expecting. It's not white, but barely has color. Unfortunately, neither of the two places I order from have the right shade. The one I had has been discontinued! It's amazing that in the hundreds of options these two companies have, neither have the cream that I need! So, her cards are a mix of the few pieces I had left, some of the thin stuff that is the right shade, and some of the light stuff that is the right texture!

Anniversary gifts

My husband and I love "adopting" teens and college students. It's been easiest, of course, with our daughter Abbie at nearby Houghton ... Sunday morning a bunch of students drive down for church, and about twice a month they eat at our house (the trip is 40-50 minutes, depending on the weather). However, we have managed one "adoptee" from Karen's former college, Patrick Henry. Ben Fan came to visit Houghton a year or so ago, and had surprised us by coming to church with Abbie. We came to our house afterwards, and fit in perfectly with our family. He didn't end up transferring after all, but thanks to xanga & facebook, the connection has remained. All of that to say that he was in the area for the weekend, and knowing that it was our anniversary, he connected with our kids and well, we had a couple of great surprises.

We started a tradition years ago of using sneaking clothes pins onto people's clothing. We primarily did this in church and at family get togethers. Friends at church, paricularly our friends the Herr's, also got into the act as did my side of the family. We also tried spreading it at college, so Ben had been "pinned" a few times. So, the engraved giant clothes pin will have a place of honor forever. (Becca, what do you think?!)

I had planned to post this yesterday, but I couldn't find the clothes pin. It was found in the cupboard, where my son had thought it ought to be put to use. :-)

My daughter, Susannah, loves creating videos (not an easy task with a dinosaur computer!), and Ben is a gifted composer. This is what they came up with:

Last, last minute anniversary card?

I can't believe that after that last post, I did not think about an anniversary card for my husband until the day before! And as it was late at night when I remembered, I was too tired to complete it until the next day! Oh, brother! Maybe I'm doomed to forever making cards last minute!

Last, last minute birthday card?

It's sort of a family joke about my last minute cards. Now that the business in which I sold is no longer, perhaps this will be my final, last minute card?

Probably not.

:-)

Note: the pinks really DO blend, the scan just altered them a bit, and finishing it the night before gave me no chance to photograph it in the daylight, lol!

smARTworks Tea Party

I have rarely been able to do challenges of any sort in the last few months, but I got to do this one over at smARTworks.

I had this giraffe stamp for awhile, but hadn't wanted to take the time to figure out how to color. Paper piecing, which I somehow missed the existence of, solved that problem. It's not an especially patterned paper I chose, but it works great for color. I love the leaf stamp that comes with this set, and using it with my memories sage and pine tree greens make a great background. (Memories bleeds a little, so I rarely use it, unless I'm doing forest or foliage). Unfortunately, it was a bit to busy for the giraffe. I could have continued stamping the image in forest, but I really liked how it looked. So, I tried sliding the giraffe head a little above the print, as you see in the card, and that solved the problem. I embossed the mane in brown on the white cardstock, and added some color to the eyes to make the stand out. My daughter pointed out that giraffe's have really big eyelashes, so I penciled those in as well.

I didn't get to cardmaking until later this evening. I actually went shopping and TOOK MY OWN SWEET TIME! Everything in the past few months had been done as quickly as possible to get back home to work on projects, or house/family stuff. I can't believe how free I feel! Still very busy, but the pressure is gone. :-)