A Word From Senior Army Leaders

Most of you who visit my blog know that my husband is retired from the Army so you have to know that on Veterans Day that I would have to post something. The above letter is from Senior Army Leaders and especially special to me because they make an extra effort to thank NCO's for their exceptional work...Todd was an NCO and did indeed work hard. Please click on the photo to make it larger so you can read it. We have a long, strong, and proud history of military service in our families so my phone calls will be many today. I hope that, even if you don't have members of the military in your family, that you will take the time to thank a Veteran today. One other thing...please pray for our troops. They need it now more than yesterday and tomorrow more than today.

If you have or are currently serving in the military or have family members that are or have...thank you! Your service has not gone unnoticed and we love you!

Something new...

Morning friends...today something new starts on my blog. A month or so back I joined a Yahoo group called Utah Diva's International. UDI is a group of SU! demonstrators and we all share our work, advice, and stamping fun with each other through a Yahoo group and through the UDI blog. Well, earlier this week I got an e-mail asking me to be on the design team for one of their challenges...they have an inspiration challenge, a sketch challenge, and then they also have stampers that update their blog everyday. I got to choose which team I wanted to be involved with and guess which one I chose? That's right! Sketches...I do love 'em and I think they love me too! So...today is the first sketch challenge that I'm officially part of the sketch team. And a good one it is too!

My card for this sketch challenge is made with patterned paper from the Holiday Lounge Designer Series Paper pack as well as stamps from the Christmas Punch and Sweet Seasons stamp sets. The card itself is pretty self explanatory, I think but if you need any information just let me know!

You will find the sketch HERE. I would definitely encourage you to participate if you have time as this is a very versatile sketch.

Alright, that is my fun news for the day. I hope you like the card and I'll see ya soon!

Blogger's Challenge

Morning everyone. Today is Blogger's Challenge day. Today's challenge is to pick a technique and make a project with it. I am not a technique kind of gal but I decided to give it a try anyway so off to SCS I was to find just the perfect technique.

What I decided to do is the Grid Technique. HERE is a link to the directions on SCS. I figured that since I needed to make a birthday card for Scott that I'd combine the two and here is what I came up with. Scott is 22 this year...I just couldn't decide what to use as a main image so I used Lovely As A Tree and went from there. I just scored the grid marks on my Confetti Vanilla card stock, then inked up my old Canvas background stamp, sponged some extra color around the edges and that became my main image. The rest...well, I wasn't feeling very inspired so it is very simple. I had to use some hardware though as ribbon would never do on Scott's card!

Overall, I like the grid technique but probably could have been a little more creative with the overall layout of the card.

If you'd like to check out what the other bloggers have done just check out the list in my side bar and you'll be all set to go!

Also, I told you that I'd let you know who won my blog candy from Sunday's post and that is...

Heather A said...

What a great gift idea! This is something that I will do.
TFS.

November 1, 2009 5:08:00 PM PST

Congrats Heather! I need you to e-mail me your snail mail address (click on the e-mail button at the upper left hand side of my blog) by Sunday evening.

Please don't forget about the digi image that is being sold to raise money for Henry's Memorial. More information can be found about that HERE. I'll be back tomorrow with a neat announcement!

A Tree For Henry

As you all know a friend of mine...Sarah Anderson's 3 year old son died on Monday. Little Henry was just unable to overcome a virus that made him ill last week.

I have been organizing a way to donate for a memorial for Henry. Henry loved his local zoo and visited it almost every day in the summer. As a memorial, trees will be planted there in his honor. Melissa at Pink Cat Studio has created a digital stamp to help raise funds for a tree for Henry. All proceeds from the sale of the digi stamp, minus Paypal costs, will go towards the tree. If you would like to donate towards the tree, please visit this webpage to purchase the digi stamp: http://www.pinkcatstudio.com/Digital/DigiStamps/Animals/Zoo/GiraffeAndMonkey.htm If you'd like to purchase this stamp but aren't sure what to do with a digi image please contact me and I'll do my best to explain it to you!

Another way to donate to the memorial is to print out this form and mail in your donation directly: http://www.ci.oshkosh.wi.us/Parks/PDF/MemorialTreePamphlet.pdf Please write on the form that the donation is for Sarah Anderson’s son Henry. Once all of the money is collected, a tree and location will be selected. If you have questions about the form please let me know. I will be in contact with Sarah along this memorial journey to ensure that her wishes are followed.

If you don’t know Sarah and would like to learn more about her, you may visit her blog: http://scrampinmama.blogspot.com/

Thank you for your help to raise money for a tree for Henry and please continue to pray for the Anderson family.

PS: Due to this important fundraiser I will be posting the winner of my blog candy tomorrow.

Your Hands

Sometimes, something happens and you are just shaken to your core. Some of you know that a dear friend of mine (and of a lot of us) lost her 3 year old son on Monday. No, not lost while at the store but lost as in he died. While I'm absolutely certain little Henry is in Heaven with Jesus it still leaves his family (and the rest of us) to cope with the void his death has left. Please pray for the Anderson family and remember that when our world is shaken...Heaven still stands.



A special post will be coming up on Thursday...please don't miss it.

Is it bad...

Tell me ladies...is it bad when you really like a card that you made? I absolutely LOVE this card. I love the color combo, I love the sketch from Utah Diva's International, I love the watercolor-y image, I love the sentiment, and I love the flower. Pretty much I love this card!

Do you want the deets or do you want to just admire the card? Gosh...sorry about that! I decided to take an image that seems to me to be mostly a spring/summer image (from the hostess set level 1 Of the Earth) and try to make it into something kind of fallish but fresh as well. I specifically wanted the Ruby Red of the designer series paper from the
Autumn Tradition pack and then took the rest of the colors from that pack. The card base is Elegant Eggplant, to layer the patterned paper I used More Mustard and for the image/sentiment I used Confetti White. To get the watercolor look I 'painted' the image with markers on the rubber. Then I spritzed the Confetti White cardstock with water and stamped my image directly on it. A great look and easy to do.

I also wanted to let you know that I'll be linking this card to Danni's Butterfly Challenge. This is an 'open' week which just means to make a card/project with butterflies, fairies or angels and link it up to Danni's blog HERE. Very fun...who doesn't love butterflies?

And, finally...don't forget about my blog candy! Find out all about it HERE!!

Woohoo!!!! Finally!!!!

Oh. My. Gosh!! I'm so happy to be back with you guys! I have been trying for THREE days to get signed into my blog and this morning it finally worked. I guess, from reading Bloggers known issues blog, that it was an intermittent problem with only some blogs affected but I can tell you it was FRUSTRATING!! Anyway, I'm here and I want to show you a jar that I gussied up!

This is the jar from the very first Gold Canyon Candle that I have ever burned all the way down to nothing. I was going to put it into the recycling bin when Todd asked me if I could use it for something else because he would wash it out and get absolutely everything out. I thought...sure why not? I had been wanting to try some of Stampin' Up!'s Decor Elements and when I saw the 'Jingle all the way' sentiment I knew it would be perfect. All I can say when using the Decor Elements is to read the directions. They are super easy to use, even on a rounded surface...if you re ad the directions!

Anyway, to not detract from the Decor Elements I just used a single piece of ribbon (that is in the Holiday Mini but that I can't find for the life of me!) and then used the sentiment from the stamp set Sweet Season for the lid. Very easy to do but lots of wow factor, I think!

And now...for the fun part! Since I was gone so long and since I love my readers I'm going to give away a Jingle All The Way Decor Element (not my decorated jar but a decor element for you to make your own jar)! Yep, I bought two...for this specific reason! So, what do you need to do to win...comment on this post. If you come back and comment again that you let others know about my blog candy by either e-mailing your friends (bcc: me on the e-mail) or posting a note about it on your blog you'll get a second chance to win. I'm sure I'll find something else to throw in too so...good luck! Be sure to do both of those things by Wednesday night at midnight (PST) and I'll post the winner on Thursday morning!
So there you have it! I hope you have a wonderful Sunday!