You Go Girl!

Hello friends.  My health has been worse than usual for several months, so I haven't been posting or crafting much for that matter. This is also why I've been hit & miss about commenting on blogs.  Just too sick to keep up with anything extra. Normally there are about 23 foods total that I can eat without being sick due to my stomach problem.  Right now the only foods my tummy can tolerate are saltine crackers and oatmeal.  I'm trying not to take pain medicine as that makes my stomach problem worse.  Between the bad pain and the constant nausea it can be very hard to function.  But enough of my woes. :)

On to the card.  I have a friend who is on a weight loss journey and having been on that journey myself I know that encouragement is always welcome.  The image on the card front and the inside sentiment are digital stamps from Doodle Pantry. I tried to give the bird a bit of a feathery look with my coloring.

Inside the card.

Challenges:
 Word Art Wednesday #50 Encouraging or uplifting sentiments.

Twist of Faith Card Challenges #7 Your Favorite - Encouraging cards are my favorite kind to make & this card uses purple, which is one of my favorite colors.

For quite some time now I've been admiring planters made from vintage wooden chairs.  I never said anything to hubby about this.  Recently he came home telling me about this old chair he found that he wanted to turn into a planter and wondered what I thought of the idea.  It's rather amazing how often our minds come together on things without discussing them first.  I guess it comes from 31 years of terrific marriage. :)  So anyhow, this is a picture of the chair planter right after hubby finished it.  The chair has some seriously awesome chippy, old paint.  Makes my heart smile.

Blessings

• My mom came safely through surgery she had on Sunday.
• The lovely fall weather.  Such a wonderful time of the year!
• Happy mail. :)

Have a marvelous day!!!

Inky hugs!
Shelly

Great New Challenge!!!

Hi friends.  I hope you all are enjoying your weekend.  Today we worked on more of the finishing touches for our newly renovated bathroom.  We still have things left to do, but it's looking more finished and we can use the shower/tub.  That means we now have a functioning toilet, sink and shower/tub all in the same bathroom. Woohoo! Life is good. lol

There's a new challenge blog that I am excited about.  It's called Anything But A Card Challenge Blog. It's a bi-weekly challenge blog where you can show off your created items! Anything except cards!  Sounds like just what I need.  Sometimes I get in a rut.  Stop over and see what they're all about and sign up for their awesome blog candy while you're there.

Blessings:

• A wonderful, new to us refrigerator.
• My nephew passed his driver's test and got his license!!!
• Hubby's heart is continuing to do very well since his surgery.
• The joy of being part of a close, loving family.

Have a terrific day!!!

Blessings and hugs!
Shelly

Anniversary Love!

Hey there friends. The original design I had in mind for this anniversary card called for my new Nestibilities die.  So I made my plate "sandwich" and started to run it through my Cuttlebug and next thing I knew one end cover blew off of my Cuttlebug and the plates came flying back out at me and hit me in the shin and foot.  I ended up with a big goose egg on my shin and a bruised toe.  Gotta watch out for those Cuttlebug attacks. lol   I'm not sure what caused my poor Cuttlebug to "explode".  I had my "sandwich" properly stacked and was only cutting card stock.  The one thing I did differently was that I rolled the sandwich through and then turned the handle and started to roll it back through the other way.  This is something I don't normally do, so maybe that was the problem.  If hubby can't fix my Cuttlebug, I'll be saving for a new one. :( 

The digital image I used on my card is from Shoregirl's Creations.  I used a SU punch to cut the little banner flags out of printed paper and stamped the letters on them.  I had planned to print a July calendar to use, but we were out of black ink, so I used the July page from one of my calendars.  I'm happy with how this card turned out considering I couldn't use my Cuttlebug or my printer as I had originally planned to. :)

I'm entering these challenges:

DL.Art Thankful Thursday - Weddings or Anniversaries
The Stamp Man - Anything Goes Celebrations
Sweet n' Sassy - Use Flags or Banners

Blessings

• A great week of VBS at our church.
• My hubby's extra help and concern as I haven't been feeling at all well lately.
• Some delicious cake. I don't eat sweets very often, so I really enjoy them when I do. :)

Have a terrific day!!!

Blessings and hugs!
Shelly

Christmas Cheer

Hi friends.  I'm wondering if the Christmas in July kick I'm on lately is a sub-conscious wish for cooler weather.  Just kidding!  I honestly can't complain about the weather we've had in Florida this summer.  We did have quite a thunder storm today though.  Lightning struck a tree in our neighbor's yard.  That was loud!

The darling digi stamp I used is from the Cherry Kiss Collection at Pollycraft.  Pollycraft closed last month, but you can still visit Paula's blog.  I apologize for the blurry picture.  I didn't realize it was blurry until I saw it on here and I'm too tired to take another one right now.  I'll try to take a new picture tomorrow.  I paper pierced along the wavy border, added faux flower soft to the snowballs, added Stickles to the snow on the ground and the coat and hat trim and finished off the hat with a holly brad.  I also stippled in some blue sky.  My papers and the holly brad are from my stash, so they qualify for the Clear It Out Challenge.

You can see in this picture that the snowballs are dimensional.  A fun feature for a card that will go to a young girl.

I'm entering these challenges:

Stampin' Sisters In Christ - Sparkle

Send A Smile 4 Kids - Christmas in July

DL.ART Challenge - Christmas in July

Clear It Out - Christmas in July - Use something red or green.

Blessings

• My daughter is helping me clean out some stuff we no longer need.  The trick is for us not to keep any of each other's discarded stuff. :)
• Good music.  It's so uplifting.
• My hubby's paitence and love in fixing my computer for me frequently as it's getting old and problematic.

Have a marvelous day!!!

Blessings and hugs!
Shelly

Blue Christmas

Hi friends.  More Christmas in July today. :)  The digi image I used on this card is from Paper Cupcakes.  I'm not sure who makes the little sentiment stamp.  The hat is trimmed with some faux flower soft and I used Stickles on the ice.  The rest is just bits and pieces from my stash.

I'm entering these challenges:

Word Art Wednesday #36 - Encouraging or Uplifting Sentiment.

Stampin' Sisters in Christ #148 - Sparkle

2 Sisters #100 - Christmas in July

52 (Christmas) Card Throwdown - July Color Challenge

Catch the Bug Saturday Challenge - Christmas Cards for Kids.

Send A Smile 4 Kids - Christmas in July

Blessings

• My sweet, little dog snuggled up next to me.
• A great sale on some otc medications we neeeded. 
• I thank God for a husband who not only does the shopping, due to my health problems, but also searches to find excellent buys. 
• Mark bought a used flip side belgian waffle maker this weekend.  We had delicious, belgian waffles for supper tonight.
• Extra time with my sweetheart this afternoon. My favorite way to spend a day.

Have a marvelous day!!!

Blessings and hugs!
Shelly

Christmas in July

Hi friends.  Don't ask me why I'm messing with Christmas cards when I have half a dozen other projects under way that I should be working on.  Sometimes my creativity gets a wild hair and wants to do the opposite of what I want it to do, so I go with the flow. :)  I saw this folded Christmas tree in a magazine awhile back, but they didn't give the instructions for it.  Mark and I messed around with some double sided paper until we came up with a tree fold.  I made the trees up ahead to be added to cards at a later time.  I often make elements ahead for my cards that way. I have since found a tutorial for the tree fold.  The tutorial uses a scalloped circle, so the tree is a bit more fancy than mine.
I stamped "JOY" with a typewriter alphabet by and used a punch to cut the letters out. 

I'm entering these challenges:

Card Crafters Circle #31 - Christmas in July

Card Caravan #22 - Christmas in July

DL. ART Thankful Thursday - Christmas in July

Sarah Hurley Challenge #70 - Buttons

Blessings:

• I used my birthday money to purchase a box of books and audio books.  I'm in the midst of 5 of them right now.  Utter bliss!!!!  Here's a link to the awesome book sale that enabled me to purchase so many new books at once.
• A sweet note from a friend.
• We were given a "new to us" toaster with slots that are big enough for bagels.  It's so nice to be able to easily pop a bagel into the toaster.  A big thank you to our friends. :)

Have a terrific day!!!

Blessings and hugs!
Shelly

A "Punny" Card

Hi friends.  In May I won a challenge at Stampin' Sisters In Christ and my prize was 3 digital stamp sets of my choice from Doodle Pantry Digital Doodles. I used images from one of the sets I choose on today's card.  I figured this "punny" set would be sure to bring a smile to someone that is sick.  I wish I had added some shimmer to the fish, but didn't think of it until after I had already covered the fish bowl with clear vinyl to make it look like glass.  Next time!  I made the background paper using the Polished Stone Technique.  I make this paper up ahead of time in large batches, so that I have it on hand when I need it.  Plus it's kind of addictive to make when you get going. :)  I used an embossing folder and ink for my other paper.  The card itself is a beautiful, metallic, silvery blue.  The card sketch is from Fetch a Sketch.  I seldom use sketches, because I'm never sure how creative I'm allowed to be with them for challenges.  Here's hoping my version is okay. :)

I'm entering these challenges:

Stampin' Sisters in Christ #147 - Use at least 1 circle or oval element, at least 2 different papers and at least 1 embellishment.

Word Art Wednesday #36 - Use an encouraging or uplifting sentiment.

Fetch A Sketch #28 - Follow the sketch.

Blessings

• We had a little rain yesterday.
• Sweet, juicy watermelon that was given to us. 
• Mark is feeling well on his busier work schedule this week.
• Funny things kids do that make us smile.

Have a fabulous day!!!

Blessings and hugs!
Shelly