Framing Your Image

Our Daily Bread Designs has a challenge this week to "frame" your design. I love this paper collection, "Sparkling Spring" by Prima and used the design in the paper and a framed stamp image to frame this sentiment from ODBD "Lift Up Our Hands." I added a punched lattice border on the bottom to give it a bit more substance. The gorgeous flower is from Prima, and I added vellum leaves sponged with TH "Peeled Paint" (green) for the leaves.

I hope you enjoy this card creation.
I haven't been feeling well for a couple of weeks now...and would just ask for prayer from my friends as I don't know what the culprit is...though I am thinking hormones or thyroid. Dizziness, extreme lethargy, and just overall blech. I wouldn't be too concerned, except our entire family is due to take a vacation overseas in just two weeks, and I want to be feeling much better in order to make the most of that trip. I do have a dr. appointment coming up in a couple of days, so that should help. Not to cause anyone worry, but your prayers would be really appreciated.
Thanks so much for coming by.

Happy Birthday!

I had fun coloring up this popular Pure Innocence little girl and adding a "jeweled" crown using this pretty paper and stickles for a bit of sparkle! These are colors I don't pick up very often, orange, greens, and of course, a dose of pink...otherwise it just wouldn't be "me."
I hope she gives you a smile today...thanks for popping in! Blessings on your day!

Charming Gardener



A charming gardener, I am most definitely not. That is probably why I am so drawn to florals on cards, the vibrant colors and cascading blossoms on paper make me giddy!!
I attempted last year to dig up an unused space on the side of our lawn and went to top-notch nurseries with the idea of making a beautiful, bountiful, lush garden. I planted long stemmed daisies and gerberas, with the image of vases with fresh-cut flowers brightening the multiple spaces in our home. I waited expectantly and watched as the stalks reached dwarf length, flowers budded in tight gnarled knots, then withered away in the afternoon sun. Not one single bloom to show for the money and time spent!!
Anyway, this is a card for a Flourishes challenge , "A Cut Above the Rest." The challenge is to make a cut on your card. This sentiment was cut out using the deckled rectangles from Spellbinders, and circle nestabilities for the bird.
This card was also my first attempt at sewing...and was happy to say I only had the needle jammed once...yippee! This was one of those cards that was days in the making, I kept fiddling with the layout, then the origonal black base was too somber for the sentiment, so I cut it out and framed it with yellow and then mounted on a white base. At least with this card I have a single rose bud to show for my efforts!
What about you, do you enjoy gardening? And if so, do you have any tips?
Thanks for stopping by, and it's almost spring here in Colorado. Time to go plant some more stuff and hope for the best!

Stampin' Sisters in Christ Challenge

Isaiah 40:8
"The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; but the word of our God shall stand forever."

We have a lovely spring day outside, so I took a chance with the wind and quickly snapped this photograph of my card for this week's SSIC challenge. You can see the challenge by clicking on the blinkie in my sidebar. This week we were to use flowers in our card...and they needed to be stamped.  I used a Verve stamp for the verse and some Rubber Stamp Tapestry stamps ( a gift from a friend)...to frame the verse in a wreath. These were so fun to work with the different colors of inks and florals to adorn this verse.
I hope you enjoy this card today and your spirits are lifted as you trust in God's word.
Thank you so much for stopping by!

A Keepsake Letter

There is a story behind this card today...one of those times when the story is much bigger than the card, actually.
As most of you know, my Grandmother, Odell Gray, passed away on February 7. I had the assignment of planning her memorial service, and part of that was providing an obituary. I realized how very little I knew of this woman who had lived for almost a century...and making a few phone calls to my Mom from the funeral home didn't help with any details. I went home that day thinking sadly to myself, that we have an entire legacy lost from this era...as no one in my family could recall any details of her life. I had only been around my grandmother as a young child, and then again in the last few years, and because of her being deaf and refusing to wear a hearing aid, communication with her was very limited.
Then there was the difficulty of Mom, being confined to the nursing home for the previous three months and declining health, as well as I am sure the shock and grief upon her...well, there just wasn't much information to go on.
A few days later, I was at my Grand mom's home, and helping my Dad find some important documents and pictures, we discovered three albums of pictures, and I took them back to my Dad's.  Later that evening, as I was thumbing through an old album, this letter was creased between the pages. It was a letter my Mom had given her mother in 2002. And in the letter lie all the details of this woman's life, summed up in four handwritten pages penned by her daughter...from her beginnings with my Grandad starting up a small farm in East Texas to moves they had made necessitated by hardship, and woven throughout the words were a picture of my Grand mom and her life that I had not had before.
I was able to read the letter written by my Mom at Grand mom's memorial service, all four pages without tears. At the end though, my Mom praised her Mother for all of her character qualities, and listed them all...generous, kind, a heart that was so big and yet safe to keep secrets, and a treasured friend.  And I am thankful to say my Mom has been all these to me, and more , since I was at the age of six and went with my brother to live permanently with my Dad and his new bride.
Over and over again since reading this letter, I have felt God's goodness toward our family to provide this at just the right time, and have been thanking Him for that. But it has also reminded me to send a letter to a loved one along with a card...especially at birthdays or Mother's or Father's Day...because even after the memory fades and confusion sets in, those words can be a balm of healing and restoration to the soul.
This card was made with a Flourishes image given to me by a sweet friend this year.  I embossed the image in white and then outlined it with a copic marker just slightly darker than the paper. I made a vellum strip with the words, "Just Because."
This will be  a card containing a letter to my Mom...
thanks for stopping in today...blessings on your day!