Kindness Matters, it really does!

I finally got some time to sit down and get a bunch of crafting projects done! I've gotten quite a few cards done in the last few weeks between packing! It had been SO long since I had to unpack, I forgot how much work it takes! We've been working hard on going through all of our boxes and de-stashing some of our "baggage". It is amazing how much stuff we put in storage 2 1/2 years ago before we moved across country, that we now, after moving back across country and taking stuff out of storage, are finding that we never should have packed in the first place! A lot of it was stuff that we've been able to donate to our local homeless shelter, used book store and thrift stores. Mainly books and clothes, but a few household items as well. We are almost done unpacking!

My Hubby Hazen and I are big believers in KARMA. Anytime someone does something nice for me (us), I always make a card for them because I think that it's great someone took the time to do something for me (us) and it's the least I could do. I know that the universe will give back to them in time, but I like to show gratitude as well.

After just moving across country and being reunited with many of my missed stamp sets, I got the chance to use my Stampin' Up! Kindness Matters set and my large Stampin' Up! En Francais background stamp.

I made 2 of this card, one for my good crafting friend Mona. She is such a great friend, so kind, sweet and fun! She is always sending me crafting goodies, too! And we belong to a lot of the same crafting groups so we are always getting to share our craft projects, which is great! She makes some really cute things, I especially love all her ATC cards and her tags that she makes with die cuts. In one of our groups on Facebook she shares a ton of really cool crafting projects and tutorials that she finds on youtube, and lots of DIY video, too! She really does share some great stuff.

I could never thank her enough for everything she has done for me over the last 10 or so years I've known her, and she is such a great friend, making her a card for her recent crafting goody package is the least I could do.

The 2nd one I made is because our upstairs neighbors made us a welcome basket filled with all kinds of small household goodies, and they even put in some goodies for our fur-daughter doggy and our fur-daughter kitties. :) It was very "kind" of them to do so I made them this card, and we gave them a cake.

Here's a sneak peek, click below to see the rest.

Happy Spring ATC's (for a swap)

So I had another ATC swap this month. I signed up for the ATC swap for next month as well. I really do LOVE the ATC swaps. they are so much fun and I love getting cards back that I can hang up to decorate my craft space with. :)
So, for this ATC swap, I decided to go with a "Spring" theme. All of our ATC swaps are 'pick your own theme' and I chose to go with spring because I know so many people are sooooo tired of winter. I personally, wished it would have snowed more this winter. We had a very mild winter for Kentucky weather. It snowed some this past week, and I wish more would have fallen.

Anyhow, here are the cards I ended up doing. This card isn't complete, click below to see the rest of the cards, and the completed project.

More ATC's for a swap

Long time no post, huh?!?! I've been under an abundant amount of stress this past month, and my bipolar issues have been out of control! On top of that I've been dealing with severe neck pain. I've had this pain so bad ever since my car accident last year, uhm, 2011. man, 2012 flew by!
I've been going through physical therapy again to see if it will help anymore than it did last time, and so far, for the last 3 1/2 weeks, it hasn't helped at all. :(

Unfortunately, I am going to have to have neck surgery and will be having a neurospinal stimulator implanted in my neck. the one that was implanted in my back after the accident has helped some, but nto as much as I had hoped it would. But, hey, even the 30% or so of pain relief I get is enough!

Anyhow, I had to do some ATC cards for a swap and here is what I came up with. I LOVE how they turned out!!! a few different things done to them, they came out so pretty!! :)

Here's a sneak peek, click below to see the rest of the pics.

Christmas Crafts Galore!!

WHEWW it has been a BUSY week and weekend!! in 2 days, I've created 22, yes, you read that right, 22 different themed cards! I had to get everything done for my secret santa swap! but this post isn't about those cards yet! I'll get to that later this week or this weekend.... I have my back surgery in the morning, and I'm SO very nervous, to the point to where I'm physically ill from my nerves. My klonopin is definitely NOT helping my nerves, nor is my valium. So, while I couldn't sleep I figured this was as good a time as any to do an update on a few of the "Christmas" crafts I completed mid last week. I had a few things I had to do for "swaps" in my craft group and i had SO much fun doing them!!!!

I'm not going to post all of the supplies I listed right now, I'll update the post later with that info. For now, just pics and a little info.
So there are 3 ATC's that I did, though I'm only really pleased with 2 of them. LOL Hey, we are always our own worst critic!

My Halloween ATC Swap Card

I used to do ATC cards (artist trading card) and ATC swaps a LOT, but don't do them very often anymore. I recently joined an ATC swap in one of my craft groups and had to make 1 card for my partner. I ended up actually making 2 of this card and am going to send one to my auntie for halloween.

this is the ATC I came up with. Here is a preview, clickety click below to see the whole card.

When witches go riding, and black cats are seen, the moon laughs and whispers, 'tis near Halloween!!!

So...... Halloween is only 30 days away!!!! It is one of my favorite holidays because we get to dress up and be something we aren't throughout the rest of the year. I LOVE seeing all the creativity with costumes and make up, and of course, the crisp fall air and chilly nights are just awesome for eating warm, delish baked goodies and drinking pumpkin spiced cocoa and snuggling up with a soft fuzzy kitty or a loved one! :)
I always feel so empowered this time of year, I feel more connected to my Goddess and Mother Earth, more than any other time of the year. I've not figured out why, but I think it's just because I'm more in love with the season of this time of year.

Anyhow, I made my first Halloween card of 2012. I have to admit, I was very, very excited when I saw a card on a blog by Heather over at Downstairs Designs. I said to myself that it was the PERFECT inspiration for what I had been wanting to do. all year long I've been seeing posts all over blogger of christmas cards that have "elf feet" made from the top note die. Then, I came across a halloween card with witches feet made from the top note die on Heather's blog. I said to myself "ohhhh that is SO cute! I could totally CASE that and put my own spin on it". For those of you that don't know, to CASE a card means to "copy and slightly edit". So, this I did. I took a LOT of time making the elements for this card and I am just in love with how it turned out! :)

Here is a collaged preview that I created in my photo program...
clickety click the link below to see the whole card put together.

Surgery, Stitches, 2 cards and my card Featured on SPS blog!

EDITED TO ADD: I was just made aware that my "with sympathy" card that I blogged about in May, has been featured on the Sweet Pea Stamps blog! It was customer submission week and I decided to go ahead and send it to them. I didn't think they would pick me, but they did!! WOOT WOOT!! I wish they would have included a link back to my blog though!! but oh well! at least they featured my card! :) I made a comment and gave my blog link. hehe

I have 2 cards to share with you today that I made last night, after fighting myself to get out of bed to make them! Last week I went in for surgery to have my gallbladder out. Healing was going quite well until yesterday, I REALLY wasn't feeling well, and then I realized somehow, I ripped 2 stitches. Hubby ended up taking me to the hospital and they said I did in fact rip 2 stitches, but after going over my daily activities (which were just laying in bed watching movies, and showering) they came to the conclusion that the stitches just dissolved, but  way too early, because I still have a huge hole in my side! To top that off, I have a pretty bad staph infection, so that explains why I've been feeling so sick the last few days. Infections are nothing new to me, having Lupus (sle) it's pretty much a guarantee that I will end up with some sort of infection after any surgery that I have because my body isn't able to fight off all the bad stuff on it's own. I took the antibiotics they gave me for the 7 days, but I guess they just weren't strong enough.

Anyhow, here are the 2 cards! Today is my dear hubby's b-day! I was so sore sitting up in my chair last night I was just rushing to make the card. I also made him this adorable father's day card from our "furbabies". :)
Here are 2 sneak peeks, click the link below for full pics!
B-day card sneak peek:

 Father's day card sneak peek:

3 Birthday Cards

My friend and very lovely loyal customer, Rhonda ordered 4 more cards from me last week and needed 2 of them by the end of this week, so I completed those 2 yesterday. I still have 2 more patriotic ones to make, but for now I got her 2 requested b-day cards done, a ladies card and a guys card.

the cool thing about the guys card is that I was able to make 2 "similar" cards with 2 1/2 sheets of cardstock! Well, ok, TECHNICALLY, it was 3 1/2 sheets, BUT, I say 2 1/2 because the 3rd sheet ended up being cut down to scraps because I ripped both halves of TWICE so it was scrapped. so, in the end, the ACTUAL cards were truly made with only 2 1/2 sheets of CS. that would be, 1 sheet of deco for the fronts and inside (it was double sided so I got to use the whole 12x12 sheet, 2 fronts and 2 insides (with opposite side of the cs), and then 1 sheet of plain colored cardstock for the card base, and then half of a sheet of cardstock for the white on the inside! :)

Anyhow, here are the sneak peeks, clickety click click below to see the rest of the images (and SHORT descriptions--I'm trying to get better at doing shorter descriptions so you aren't sitting here all day reading my posts! LOL I'd seriously blabber on all day if I could! haha)

Male B-day 1 (given to Rhonda for her order):

Ladies B-day card (For Rhonda's order)

2nd 'similar' card I made, that I kept for myself to give to someone for their bday (not sure who yet, maybe my daddy, I dunno!)

Fabulous Flowers... For My Ma...

I wanted to make a card for my ma to let her know I've been thinking of her. she has been working really hard to help my daddy get their new business up and running... she has actually been working 2 jobs! Her day job as a school bus driver, getting up at 330 in the morning to be to the yard by 430, get her pre-trip bus inspection done, and her paperwork, then she goes off to pick up her kids and drops them off... she takes her bus clear back across town to the yard to pick up her car, then drives across town again to get to the new tool repair shop that her and daddy bought and she does all the book keeping and invoicing for a few hours, then goes back across town, picks up her bus and goes and gets her kids, takes her bus back to yard, drives back across town to the shop works until about 8pm or so and then goes home, and starts her day all over again the next day. I know it isn't easy for her and she is highly unappreciated by many people, my daddy EXCLUDED. he's very happy to have her there helping...

I thought it would be a nice surprise to send her this card. here is a sneak peek, click the clicky link to see the rest...

For the birthday guy!

Hey there everyone! How are you all doing?

Today is my hubby's 42nd birthday!! I'm catching up to him though, I'll be 33 on the 24th. YIKES!! but, I'm still just a baby compared to him. haha.

So, I made him this birthday card last night/this morning...

A few little fun crafts.

Hey everyone! How are you all doing? I know it's been a while since my last post. Finally got our internet fixed by the cable company. it ended up taking them almost 2 weeks to fix it. once they finally got it fixed, we ended up in another predicament because when the squirrel chewed threw the line and the cable zapped our modem, it zapped my router as well and ended up burning it up. We didn't have the money to get a new one, but last month our friend Jenn came to visit us from Las Vegas. She comes to visit every year. She ended up buying us a wireless router, which was really nice of her! So, we had our net back for a little while now, but I've just been dealing with a lot of things related to my health as a result of the car accident. things are moving along at a snails pace, but I just haven't really felt all that great to craft.

BUT.... last month I did some ATC cards for an ATC card swap. I was VERY happy with my results, and since I haven't shared my ATC's with you that I made for the swap, I thought I'd post them today. What reminded me of this was I received the other ATC cards in the mail yesterday from the swap host. So many nice cards were made! very creative cards for sure. :) So, here they are...