Doodle challenge #2

A gal on the Inky Antic message board sends out a stamped image and challenges us to make a card with it. This time, she not only sent the images, but a challenge to make it into a pocket card. I love how this turned out. The pocket is an old library pocket. I purchased a ziplock bag full of them at a secondhand store for either 10 or 25 cents. I used Basic Grey Dasher patterned paper, colored pencils, gamsol and blending stumps to color and SU!'s artichoke ink sponged around the edges. Ribbon unknown. The tab is SU!'s as well as the brads. Here is a view of the pull out tab.

Boo-Boo kitty

I have a friend who sent me some Inky Antics images quite awhile back (hi Lana! Ü) and even had this colored MONTHS ago. I just now got it put to paper and card! The colors were for a color challenge on Inky Antics-so was wayyyyy behind on that too. I think this would brighten up anyone's day as the kitty just makes you want to smile. Paper is from a paper pack, image Inky Antics and colored with colored pencils, blending with Gamsol & blending stumps (both of which can be purchased from Inky Antics).

Something old, something new

I was going thru some of my cards and came across this one that is one of my very first cards I made! I still like it!! I forget the original name, think it had berry basket in it or something like that. I do wish I still had the set though. I chalked the green stripes and chalked the basked and berries. Added raffia for dimension. Stamps by SU!

Here is something new. Last nite I stamped 6 cards/items and colored a few others. So I have some blog fodder for the rest of the week. YEAH!! Ü I love this waving kitty by Inky Antics. I received this last year for Christmas. The colors were inspired by the Basic Grey DASHER paper. I colored her with colored pencils and blended with Gamsol. I stamped the snowflake background (also Inky Antic) in blue and then added stickles to the dots in the stamp design. The ball on her cap and the circles in the bottom panel of the card have pink stickles on them. The whole card just sparkles! Ü Corners were punched with SU!'s photo corner punch. I added ribbon and SU!'s brads to finish it off.

Finally... A breakthrough

on my pain! Wed the PT was finally able to twist me in a way so that there was no pain shooting down my leg. He showed me how to get into that position when the pain starts up and it worked thru today! I am so excited. It is easy to deal with just lower back pain when I don't have that biting shooting pain going down my leg. Today we "talked" and he let me know that I DO have to have surgery, it's just a matter of WHEN. I just asked that he buy me as much time as possible. My legs feel like jelly most of the time and he is concerned because that is a sign of nerve damage. He will only let it go so long before he tells me, I can't go any longer. Otherwise the damage will be permanent. My lower back is very unstable, so that time frame is uncertain. Some of you wonder why I am waiting. The first 3 (maybe 4) discs are damaged with the first one being the worse (that disc is damaged on both sides). If I have them fused it just puts pressure on the next disc up and then in 2-5 yrs will have to have that one fused and so on, until my spine is completely fused. This is the part I am saying "no" to. Five years ago when I was to have surgery, they said if I could wait "they" were working on an artificial disc. I have seen the disc and need at least 3 of them. Problem: they are not completely approved by the insurance company because they are new. In the next 5-7 yrs if the drs can prove that the artificial discs are more beneficial than fusing, they will pay for them. I don't know that I can wait that long, but am going to try. My next choice is to apply for one. Drs. are looking for certain people to put them in (they've been doing this for 2 yrs already). I may qualify, so that could be an option. I was told 5 yrs ago I needed one and I am a SPORT patient (a group has been following me since I opted out of surgery to see how I am doing). The biggest kicker: the discs are $30,000 EACH! (again, no insurance help). This price is the disc ONLY, no dr, hosp etc bills. Five drs were in on the beginning of this artificial disc and the dr dad went to is one of them, so I would trust him to do the surgery. We don't have that kind of money, so I am doing the PT thing as long as I can and concerned that I will have to make a very difficult decision before I am ready to. Ü

Okay, if you have read this far, you are in for a treat. Look at these AWESOME goodies I rec'd from my friend Melissa!!! We do swaps from time to time and the challenge for this one was to make an altered notebook using 3 different companies. Are these papers gorgeous or what???!! I love all of the goodies! She says the floral paper is BoBunny, the dots are from Daisy Bucket (NEVER heard of them, but LOVE polka dots) and she isn't sure who make the green. I don't know who makes the flower, but it is just beautiful. The whole notebook is so cool. The colors are my favorite and I will cherish all of this! She also altered a frame and added a flower to the candle jar (which smelled sooooo yummy as I opened the box) and then sent me some papers and fun fall stickers to play with. Everything was wrapped in the green tissue paper and tied with the orange ribbons (which I will reuse Ü).

Melissa, thank you bunches and bunches. (you will laugh when you get mine-I used a big flower too. Couldn't believe it when I saw the one you made me-great minds think alike Ü)

Stay tuned for next week. If my back cooperates, I will be posting a tutorial for a tic tac purse. Be sure to have some tic tacs on hand. Ü

I've been tagged

Keri tagged me and these were the instructions:
Instructions:
1. Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself (on your blog, we all want to know them).
3. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
4. Let each person know that they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Ok so here are my seven weird or random facts (probably more random than weird?? Ü):
1. I have four younger brothers and grew up on a dairy farm.
2. I am deaf in my right ear. All the time growing up, had multiple tests as to why and the question was answered two years ago when I found out I had a brain tumor-this is the weird fact-two cells separated very early in mom's pregnancy with me and formed a tumor that shows up in one's early 40's (I was 41) because it starts growing. It was a very rare tumor and rarer yet in where it was located (my temple area)
3. I have always loved crafts. Spent many hours with my grandma doing crafts, but who knew those early years coloring would be what I still love today. Ü
4. Can't believe Keri mentioned something about the inner city, as that is something I always thought I wanted to do. For me it is working with mom's, teaching them Home Ec type things.
5. I like potato chip IN my sandwiches.
6. I LIKE Martha Stewart (weird or random? LOL!!) I love all her ideas.
7. We don't get the channels, but I LOVE to watch the home improvement type shows as well as the cooking shows.

Now I need to tag seven people. I don't know if all my readers have a blog, so I would love to hear 7 things about YOU. Post here or post a link to your blog and consider yourselves all TAGGED. Ü

More Halloween cards

Here are some more Halloween cards that I have made for the LSS to sell. Tomorrow is parent/teacher conferences, a PT treatment for me (so hope it works this time!!) and then a tutorial for you using a box of tic tacs. Ü

"The Agony of deFEET"

This will be the title page to the pics we have of Benjamin yesterday. Ü We knew right away something was wrong, when they started off running Benjamin was last. Bruce said don't worry, he will start passing guys, but didn't. Benjamin had stepped in a hole right at the start and felt pain shoot from his foot (where he has Morton's Neuroma) to his ankle and up his leg a little bit. He ran the full 5K anyway (can't believe he did it!) The coach was worried he broke it, but it doesn't seem to be that he did. He told us to watch for swelling, color change or more pain. Benjamin is still hurting today, but said the pain isn't worse. We don't see any swelling (although dad broke his ankle once and there was no swelling), so we will just watch it this weekend and see how he does today thru Monday. He is still limping and I think feels bad that the team wasn't able to get good points from him.

Halloween treat

I have some cards I made for the LSS. Here are a couple of them. The others I will have to retake. Even though I had the flash off, the stickers are lighted as though it reflected a flash.

State Meet woes

Our second fastest runner has broken his ankle!! The school has been needing a new track for some time now I guess and they finally got the vote to get one. Sooo...the kids are out running and there was a hole in the asphalt where the fork lift went into and JJ hit is and twisted his ankle. Everyone was hoping he would be ok, but after going to the dr. found out it's broken. This is tough on the guys as they had a good chance to place at state. They all seem to be cool with it and will still be going to do their best. The meet is tomorrow, so I will post some Halloween stuff I've been working on in the next post.

classes I'm doing

Auntie T asked me what classes I am teaching at the LSS for the Christmas promotion.
The first one is the snowman bookmark with matching card & envelope (I didn't get the envelope scanned with the picture as I thought of it afterward. I just added adhesive to the outside of the flap and adhered to the red polka dot paper to make it match-then brushed the edges of the envelope -front and back- with blue ink)
The other classes I am teaching is a mini coaster album (Beate did a tutorial for this on SCS you can click on resources to see it. I did mine different as I didn't want the accordian spine to show on the back side of each page. I will do a tutorial for this after my class), altered jar (I have some of these posted in a previous post), purse album (like the one I offered for blog candy, but in different papers), paperbag album (like the one I posted for sale, but had no offers-hope the class fills up) and a money envelope and matching card.
I will post these as I get them finished, but won't be posting the instructions until after each class.

1st day of Public School

We homeschooled Benjamin from K-8th grade and sent him to public school for the first time last year. Here is the page chronicling that.

We are State Bound!!

WOOHOO!! The boys got second at Districts!! -not sure how as they had the highest points they've ever had-but so happy for them!
Benjamin didn't do so good, but somehow his points helped us get second. After he ran, I could tell he was upset and worried he might have hurt the team's chances, but the coach was wonderful and told him not to worry. (he even didn't know if we qualified-said it will be really close) He told Benjamin that he was young and we still had a young team-that it wasn't his fault he was hurt a few weeks a go and there is always "next year". (he is a WONDERFUL coach!!) It was so nerve wrecking as they told the points of the teams starting with the bottom and working up. When they said 4th place I dug my fingers into Bruce's shoulder thinking they were going to say "Broken Bow" (top 3 teams qualify for state). Was so shocked when they didn't and didn't even say us for 3rd! Everyone was screaming and cheering when we were mentioned for 2nd (knew we didn't get first as Minden has a guy named Al who runs like the wind and looks like he could run forever and never get tired!-fun guy to watch run).
Anyway, so excited and Benjamin has another week to get back into shape after not running for 2.5 weeks. Will be exciting to see how the boys do at state. The girls are rated #1 and got first at the meet. Will be an exciting day next Friday!!

Okay, now I gotta get off and get some items made for classes I will be teaching in November for the local LSS's "12 Weeks of Christmas" promotion. Also have some cards and challenges I need to get done too. Got a cloudy, misty, cool (cold to the guys) day to work inside. But first I will post another page from Benjamin's scrapbook in the next post.

Snowman card & bookmark class

The local LSS is having "12 weeks until Christmas" classes. I will be teaching a few and this is the first one I will be teaching next week. It is a matching card and bookmark. The snowman's head on the bookmark slips over the page of your book. (kinda like the flower one I posted earlier)

The card will fit into a regular envy (3.75" x 6 3/8"). If you live close by I hope you will come and take the class. It is Thursday, Oct 18th at 6:30 pm.

On the Mend

I promised I would show some pages from Benjamin's scrapbook. I am a simple scrapper so this may not be much to some, but in order for me to get caught up and stay caught up, simple is what I have to do.

This is the first page in his high school scrapbook. He missed the first day of school (his very first day of public school!!) because he had to have his appendix out two days before.

Paper is Adorn it by Carolee's Creations-Lined Chalkboard

CS is Bazzil (red) , SU!'s Basic Grey (LOVE that color), and beige-unknown

Letters cut with Cricut, photo corners cut with SU! ribbon by SU & brads by Karen Foster

Blog candy winner

#13
Debbie!!!!! I've missed you! I too LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Fall! I love the gorgeous autumn colors mostly, I love the cooler air (I'm in Arizona now so the cooler temp is the best!!) I was married in the fall (Oct. 5) I love that my baby boy was born in the fall (Nov 14). I love warm, cozy comfort food - I love Thanksgiving. I loved Indiana in the fall (I sooo miss Indiana). I love scrapbooking fall pictures cuz I get to use those beautiful fall pattern papers that are out. Oh, and Halloween too....love Halloween cuz I love taking my kids trick or treating. Ok...I guess enough about what I love about fall. I'm glad to be able to catch up with you through your blog. Hugs,Paula Wade

Paula, I need your address. I had my son draw a number (still can't figure out that random.org site). Just e-mail me your addy and I will get some goodies sent along with this album to you. I haven't *talked* to you in *forever*. So glad you found my blog.

Blog Candy time extended

I wasn't even thinking when I posted that I would draw a number for the blog candy today at noon. I won't be home at noon!! Today is districts for x-country in North Platte and we are leaving in a little bit to attend.
It is a very exciting day as we have a really good chance at qualifying for state in both the boys' and girls' team!! The girls are rated #1 and the boys are rated #5, but we plan to surprise them and qualify for state. (have to be in the top 3 to do that)
The coach didn't let Benjamin run in SWC (southwest conference) last week because he needed his time today. He hasn't run (competitively) in almost 3 weeks, so I hope he does well today. We won't get home til later tonite so I will draw a name in the morning.

Blog Candy time

edited: finally I was able to upload the album (see below).

I have been so busy lately with hosting a crop and then attending one this past weekend (wonderful time had by all!!), that I missed noticing I have over 20,000 hits! Wow! How did that happen?

This past weekend when I attended the scrapbook retreat I did some serious thinking while cropping (well part of the time anyway Ü). I really want to spend more time scrapbooking and making papercrafts and less time on the internet (which takes ALOT of time since we have dial up!!), so I decided to drop from some groups I'm in. I also want to give more time to my blog sharing not only the items I make, but using it as a type of diary for friends and family too. So I have dropped from the groups as of this morning and hope that gives me more time doing the things I want to do. I have also been working on some design team submissions and hope some day that someone out there likes my work enough to ask me to join. Ü

Okay, back to the blog candy. I love fall and taught this fall purse album at my crop. I will also include some other fun fall items (not sure yet what they are Ü) with this purse album. What do you have to do to enter? Tell me your favorite thing about fall. As you probably have heard me say repeatedly, I LOVE fall! I love everything about it! The cooler weather, the sights (gorgeous colors start to show now), the smells (cider, pumpkin, s'more's over a fire), the sounds (crispy leaves beneath my feet-got to kick in some at the camp this weekend Ü)-cheers at ball games and x-country meets, and the tastes-soups, chowders, cider, and anything pumpkin. Ü Those are just a *few* of my favorite things, what are yours? Leave me a post by Thursday noon CST and I will pick a number randomly for the winner.

Here it is closed:
and opened: (there are 3 colors for the inside; green, rust and yellow)

Paper Bag Album

for sale!! I had someone ask me if I sell any of the projects I post. I guess if they weren't for anyone in particular and I still have them, just e-mail me and I will make a deal with you. So here is an item that IS for sale. This fun paperbag album is ready for you to add pictures to. I have considered trying to sell items like this on E-bay, but that just seems like too much work. So I am going to try it somewhat like E-bay. The beginning bid is $19.95. Since I will be gone all weekend, you can all post bids here until Monday, 12:00 noon CST. The last bid by that time will be the winning bid. I will then contact you for your mailing address and give you mine for you to send payment to. I will only accept money orders (unless you live here and I know you Ü). Shipping will be $4.60. I will mail it priority in a protected bag. So without further ado, here is the album...

Every page has sewing on it and is distressed with dark brown ink. The papers used are high quality acid free papers ready for you to add your favorite pictures to. On the tag on the front you can add a picture, monogram or saying. If you would like a monogram added with coordinating paper, I will do this for you for no extra cost. (you can click on each picture for a larger view) page 1 has a pull out tag that you can add more pictures to or journaling.

Here is a view with the tag pulled out.pages 3 & 4...pages 5 & 6...pages 7 & 8... on page 7 you can untie the ribbon to add journaling or more pictures inside and page 8 with the tag removed from the pocket pages 9 & 10with the tag lifted out of the pocket on page 10 here is a picture of the 3 tabbed inserts. The backs also have coordinating patterned paper and stitching.

Ugly card (?)

I joined a secret sister group on SCS and we were to make a card with the hostesses least favorite color (cameo coral) and our little sis's (the person I am suppose to send things to) least favorite (yellow). Nothing is harder for me than to make an ugly card and send it. I don't like wasting my time and supplies on something that is *suppose* to be *ugly*. So I did everything I could to make this a non-ugly card, but still using the colors I was suppose to use. I really do like how it turned out and hope my little sis does too. I stamped the petals, cut them out, sponged the edges with cameo and then again with saffron.

Supplies:

CS: SU! cameo coral, white, so saffron

Ink: cameo coral & so saffron

Stamps: paisley background & Pick a Petal

other: brads-lg one is Spare Parts, small ones -JoAnn Fabrics; cameo piece is embossed w/ paisly design-embossed a bunch of pieces when I stayed w/ my SIL and I don't know the company.

Going pink for October

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. I have been affected by this cancer through family and friends. The first being grandma who was diagnosed over 10 yrs ago. She was a survivor and my hero. Grandma's cancer is what got us into rubberstamping. Grandma was very creative and after her masectomy it was very hard for her to do much with her arm and seemed to be going thru depression. I had just learned about rubber stamping and showed it to her. She didn't think she would be able to stamp an image, so I asked her if she thought she could color. She said she did and I stamped a BUNCH of images for her. We colored them together and made them into cards. Then I hooked my aunt and we started meeting once a month to make cards and the rest is history. Ü

10/5 Blog Challenge

I am posting a day early as I will be packing to head off for Maranatha's Scrapbook crop this weekend. Alissa and I will be leaving around noon and meeting Teresa, Deanna (who said I WAS going Ü) and Amy. Last year just as I was getting into it, it was time to go!! Here is the last page I made which falls into this week's category: Orange and Black I am hoping to finish this 6 x 6 album (this is only page two!!) and get caught up on Benjamin's high school album. The boys & I love going to Pumpkin Patches and I have so many pictures of our favorite The Scarecrow Patch that I wanted to make an album just for that.

Supplies used:

paper-Bazzil and unknown patterned

ribbon: Wal-Mart

pumpkin: Cricut-Doodle Charms

other: eyelets-unknown (just asked around to see if anyone had any TINY black eyelets and a gal let me have two-wish I could find these somewhere!), ink for distressing and cheeks on pumpkin

I'm still here and update on Benjamin

WOW! Time sure does fly by fast!! I can't believe it's October already. I am loving the cooler nights though and the trees turning colors. I even got to kick thru some leaves last nite-one of my favorite fall things to do. Ü

I apologize for neglecting my blog and posting. I have rec'd e-mails asking if I'm ok and how Benjamin is doing. For those who don't know, he was hurt at the Kearney meet. He has Morton's Neuroma and thankfully it was caught early. After physical therapy and orthotics in his shoes, he is running without pain, but the coach chose to keep him out of the Southwest Conference today to be SURE. Districts are next week and Benjamin still qualifies even though he won't run today. I am sad to not be able to see him run, but thankful as it was going to be a 8 hr round trip to see him run 18-19ish minutes!! He will still go with the team, but just won't run. The coach is needing his points in districts for us to hopefully qualify for state and didn't want to take a chance of him being hurt today or he would be done for the rest of the season. Benjamin is being pretty cool about it. I am so proud of him and how well he has been doing.

I will be leaving tomorrow to scrap with some friends thru Sunday. I am hoping to get quite a bit done and have some scrap blog fodder to share when I get back! Ü I will show you a page that I did last fall at the same crop in the next post as it qualifies for this week's blog challenge. Ü