Find your wings and follow your heart

Hey there y'all! Whewww it's been a LONG time since I've updated. But I have plenty to share with you, I can assure you that. Recently I got a new customer who is ordering cards in bulk from me, 50 at a time. I've completed 2 orders in the last month, that is some crazy crafting time. I duplicated a lot of cards and just made the layout, colors and embellishments a bit different on each one.

For this first set of cards, they are replicates of a card I made a few months back. They turned out so beautiful just as they did the first time I made them.
Here's a sneak peek, click below to see the cards!

Card for Hubby-NON Valentine-But Lovey Dovey

A card for my Hubby Hazen. Not a Valentine's specifically, but still something meaningful.
Hubby and I don't do anything to "celebrate" Valentine's day. I do greatly enjoy making cards for others for it and I do make him a card every year, but we don't actually do anything to celebrate. It's more of a Hallmark Holiday in our opinion.

I actually JUST made this card in the last 2 hours this morning. I had a card in mind that I wanted to make him, but I ran out of printer ink so I couldn't make some of the components the card needed, so I didn't make him anything when I was making other Valentine's cards. But I told him that and he wasn't mad at all. But, I came in my craft room to work on a Birthday card for our Nephew and just couldn't get my mojo together. Went to put back some supplies and saw my "anchor" stamp sitting on the top of a pile of block rubber stamps and the idea just popped into my mind.

Click below to see the card

A VERY rough month, but I made 2 cards

I have 2 birthday cards to share that I made the other night. But first, some sad news. This month has been an extremely difficult month for hubby and I. On December 2, hubby's mom passed away. Her health has not been so good this past year; however, she was actually doing a bit better the last month than she had previously been doing. That is why her death was difficult because it was sudden and completely unexpected.

Thankfully, we were able to make it to see her before she passed, even though she was not conscious and braindead at the time. The dr's always say that even if someone is on life support, as she was, or in a coma, that they can still hear you. We made sure to tell her how much we loved her and how much she'd missed.

UPDATED TO ADD: The funeral home finally got moms obituary up, if you'd like to view it, you can do so here: Combs, Parsons & Collins Funeral Home: Joyce Elaine Moore. I am sharing it because some of you that read my blog have helped by donating some money towards moms cremation. THANK YOU AGAIN!!!
If you've read my blog for a while, you'll also know that last year, on the same day I had my car accident, we lost my husbands uncle, Robert. It was a very difficult day because I had gotten in a car wreck that same exact day that uncle Robert had, only 10 minutes later. My husband got a call from mom saying his uncle had passed in his car wreck and then he got a call that I had been in a car wreck just a few minutes later. it was a rough day. I was so upset, moreso than the fact that I had been hit, but because I could NOT be there with my husband. he and his uncle were EXTREMELY close. But, it was also difficult because neither of us could be there for MOM at the time, because of my wreck and me being nearly 3 hours from home and us only having that one vehicle that was wrecked. The reason it was more difficult overall is because uncle Robert was moms LAST surviving sibbling, and family member, other than her children (my husband and his younger brother and sister).
You can view uncle Roberts obituary here: Combs, Parsons & Collins Funeral Home: Robert McConnell

It was a rough time dealing with hubby's family and such, and trying to get moms affairs in order, but we've managed to get almost everything done. it is never pleasant losing a loved one, especially a parent, but it's even worse when the parents don't have any end of life care plan set up to pay for things and that burden falls on the children. It's been very difficult and I can say that we have some AMAZING friends (who are considered our family) who came to our aid to assist with paying for the $500 down payment we needed towards moms cremation so we could take care of her affairs. We were able to get her cremated (her wish) and pick up her ashes and we were able to get her a lovely urn. We are just waiting for the death certificate now so we can finish taking care of her affairs because sadly, most things can't be taken care of without a death certificate. We still owe quite a hefty chunk of money to the funeral home, more than $1,500, but they were nice enough to set us up on a payment plan, one of which we honestly can't afford, but had to agree to. :-/
For those of you who helped and read my blog, hubby and I thank you with all our hearts and we can never express how grateful we are that you helped us. ((hugs))

Through all of this mess, I had major issues with my bipolar, being off my meds for nearly 2 months, and to make a long story short and keep as much of my hassle private as possible, I'm back on them now, but not on a mix that I'm happy with. After my dr. office rescheduled 2 of my appts this week, hopefully "next year" I will get on a regimen that I like better and I feel works.

Now, onto the cards! I wasn't really in a crafty mood, but REALLY needed to get these done. I just can't stand buying mass produced cards at the store, so I just had to do them. they were supposed to be quick and easy but both cards kept giving me problems so I had to keep re-doing different components. These 2 cards are for Mary, hubby and mine's "surrogate" mother. We call her Mama Mary. She is our best friends mom, but she has always been there for us, and helped take care of us before. Her health hasn't been so great this year either, and we worried about her more than a few times this year, but I'm glad she pulled through and got better each time. I made one card for her from hubby and I, and one card for her for her daughter to give to her.

here are the sneak peeks, click below to see more.

This is the one from hubby and I for her.

 and this is the one for her from her daughter.

A Few Forgotten Cards

Usually, as soon as I'm done with cards, I take photos. If it's night time, I take the best pics I can of the cards (since I don't have a photo tent to get great pics of the cards), and then wait until the next day and take pics outside.

It is very rare that I wait longer than a couple of days to post pics on my blog. But, today I was browsing through my computer to transfer pics to the flash drives my ma got me for christmas, and I came across a few cards that I realized I never posted here. So here are 4 easter cards that I made earlier this year for my friend Rhonda to give to her niece's and her MIL. I did 3 bunny cards, same layouts with the bunnies on 2 cards and then a mirrored layout on the 3rd one, but all 3 cards are different colors, and the bunnies are different colors as well. I also did a Magnolia/Tilda card for her MIL.

Here are a couple sneak peeks. click below to see the full pics. I hope you enjoy them, I can't believe I forgot to share them, they are SO adorable!!!

My card names:
Basket Tilda

Yellow Bunny

Pink Bunny

Purple Bunny

Before you read on, please know that this post is VERY image heavy. There are 18 pics in all, so if you're on any internet besides high speed cable modem, it may take a few moments for all the photos to load.

5 cards...

I have a couple of cards to share with you. I had a local gal I know place a LARGE order for some handmade cards from me. She wants 1 card per week from last week until valentines day. Last week I managed to get some cards done for her including one for thanksgiving this week.

I also had to make a christmas card for my "secret santa" swap partner for our SS swap in my craft group. :)
Here are the 4 cards I made her, plus my SS card.

First up is the Thanksgiving card I made her. I must say myself, it is ABSOLUTELY adorable!!! I used THIS adorable guy, "Tiny the Turkey" from Digital Delights by Louby Loo and made him as a paper piecing. The photo isn't that great and doesn't show a lot of the detail, but I used my colorbox catseye queue ink stacks in a few different colors to do some highlighting to him and give him some definition.

All of the colored CS and the DSP used on the card is The Paper Studio Company. I used "Jute Twine" on the pattern dsp of the chevrons. I have come to really, really LOVE using jute twine. I like the rugged look it gives. it's perfect for this type of card, or really, any type of card that will be given to a guy. :)

 I used the Digital Stamped Image for the top layer of the sign and put it in my photo program. I used my text tool to add the sentiment to the sign and then printed it on coordinating tan cs, cut it out and adhered as the top layer of the sign.

 For the inside of the card, this is the exact sentiment that she wanted, so I typed it Microsoft word as the "footer" on the page that way I had enough room all at the top of the white cs to mat it to the inside of the card, leaving a small area of tan all the way around.

 clickety, click click the link below to see the rest of the cards.

3 Birthday Cards!

Howdy Y'all. How are you all doing? things around here have been SO hectic for the last week, but I finally found some time to sit down and make a few cards :)
I was finally able to get my wisdom tooth surgically removed this past Monday. and boy was that a hassle and painful! I'm still in quite a bit of pain and these 3 stitches in my gum are irritating, to say the least! LOL
but, it's out and I'm glad, and this pain will be temporary! My back surgery is rescheduled for the 30th of this month (was mid November, but they had a cancellation so they penciled me in!) so I have a LOT to get done still by way of cards for my "Secret Santa Swap". haha I have to make 20+ cards for my partner, I've got half done, just haven't posted them here yet (shhhhhh she follows my blog!!) ;)

Well here are previews of my cards, I'll keep the rest of this post short and sweet, just a few pics and I'll list my supplies at the bottom of the post in case you wanna know what I used.

Previews, clickety click, click below for the full pics!

2 beautiful thinking of you cards; Sympathy and Get Well.

Last week I made two cards. Hubby and I got word that our surrogate mama was back in the hospital due to a few health problems. We were not happy to hear this. she has been having a lot of health issues lately, so I figured I would make her a card to cheer her up. We also got word that a friend of ours mother had passed away. I wanted to make a card for her as well. I wasn't sure how well it would be received, as I'm always scared to give someone a sympathy card, but hopefully she likes it! I always say, it's the thought that counts, even if someone just throws it in the trash.

Here are the 2 cards... a small preview, clickety, click, click below to see the full deets. :)

Thinking of you get well...

 Thinking of you with sympathy...

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:

Mother's Day Cards Set 1 (see post below for set 2)

I hope everyone had a wonderful mother's day!! I just spent some time with my hubby and our "fur babies". :) as good as it will ever get for us as "parents", but I've come to be at ease with that. Since I couldn't be with my ma and grandma, I made them some LOVELY cards!!

I ended up making 6 cards all together So to show them all I will make 2 posts... this post will be post 1, and will have my grandma's, my ma's and my MIL's cards. the post below this post on my blog will be post 2 and will have the additional cards I made...


here are a few sneak peeks at the first 3 cards... I know that my posts are usually LONG, but I'll just show the pics and keep this post with SHORT descriptions since there are quite a few pics. I hope you like the sneak peeks, clicky click below for the rest of the pics! ENJOY and thanks for looking!


SNEAK PEEKS (click link below to see full pics of rest of fronts and the decorated insides)
Card 1~My Grandma's card:

Card 2~My Ma's card

Card 3~My MIL's card:

3 more mother's day cards (Post 2) (and WHAT'S THAT STAMP SET???)

As stated in my first mother's day card post, I made a total of 6 mother's day cards... You've seen the first 3, here are the other 3. Also, I NEED YOUR HELP!! I have a stamp set that I got from a friend, and we don't know the name of the set or the company it's from... I've posted it at the end of the post, if you know, please comment and let me know! Thanks! :)
2 of these cards are for mine and hubby's "surrogate mother" (our best friends mom, who has helped us in life when we needed it most--we've also known her so long and spent so much time with her, she's like another mama to us, LOL). one of the cards was from hubby and I and the other was for her 'real' daughter to give to her for mom's day.


I also had one card for a custom order from one of my very loyal customers and friend, Rhonda. :)
HERE ARE THE SNEAK PEEKS, CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO SEE THE REST OF PICS


Card 4~My 2nd mama's card (from hubby and I):

Card 5~ 2nd mama's card from her daughter:

Card 6~Custom ordered card from Rhonda for her MIL:

very rough days, but made a card!

Been an extremely rough past month for me, been off my bipolar meds cause I couldn't afford them. I finally got to fill them yesterday, but this past week has been so rough for me, today is the first day I've been out of bed since monday. I'm contemplating admitting myself to the psych ward, this is something that my husband and I are weighing heavily. It's definitely NOT an easy decision to make.

aside from all this crap my mind is putting me through, I woke up today and I was extremely anxious. I needed to be busy and do something, so I made a card for my BFF Leslie, she just had surgery. sadly, it only took me 15 minutes to make it so it didn't keep me busy long enough. I went to the dr, went to the post office, went to the bank and then got home and was still really anxious, but i just couldn't stop crying either. I ended up walking around the block 2 times with the dog just trying to keep my mind off things. too bad it didn't help much :(

anyhow, here's a sneak peek of the card, click below to see the rest of the pics.

Long Distance Love, for my daddy! AND a funny-but true- FISH story!)

Since I made a card for my ma, I HAD to make one for my daddy! I miss him SOOO very much and he is working SO hard!
As I've said before, it's no secret that everyone in my family (ESPECIALLY my daddy and I) love fishing! When I lived in vegas, before hubby and I moved here to the sticks, Uhm, I mean kentucky, My daddy and I would go fishing almost every sunday! he would come pick me up at the butt crack of dawn, and we'd go out on the boat. the days were always long, but fun... sometimes we would just stay out at the lake and sleep in our favorite cove on the rocks in our sleeping bags. No tent, no nothing! that was the real roughin' it for us :)
Anytime we went fishing, we always had my grandma's chicken salad for sandwiches, it was SO delicious!! I make some good chicken salad, but not near as good as grandma's!

One thing I've never learned to do, no matter how many times my ma and daddy have tried to teach me, is docking the boat. I can get it close, but instead of "lining up with the dock" I end up ramming it. LOL.
Well, this one time, (don't ALL great stories start like that?!?!?! HAHA!) My daddy told me, you are GOING to dock this boat!!! well, he went to park the truck and left me with the boat. yeah, I finally docked it!!!! WOOO HOOO!! but, tragedy struck and the engine died. (DUMM DUMMM DUMMMM) so, the boat was being pushed further and further "up" towards the boat ramp and the bottom of the motor was starting to scrape the pavement under the water. well, I tried and tried to start the engine (THAT, I did know how to do, it just wasn't working!) so, there was only one thing to do in order to save our propeller. I JUMPED into the water and pushed the boat backwards. YAY, I saved the day, and our propeller!!! yeah.... well when dad came walking down that hill, he was like WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN THE WATER???? I said well, it was either me jump in, in this WHITE t-shirt and my bra in front of all these old dudes, or we end up with a bent and busted propeller. he was just LAUGHING so loud, and some of the other guys around actually stood up for me! LOL turns out, I could have started the engine all along, I just got so flustered I forgot to flip the choke switch! :-/ UGH!! leave it to me to be a duffus! and this my friends, is why my daddy says I need to wear a special helmet. LOL anyhow, that day turned out to be a WONDERFUL day, and we caught LOADS of fish (including one 16 inch catfish and one 14 inch catfish--and that's NO fish story!) and we even enjoyed some of grandma's great chicken salad!!

Ok, enough of my boring old fish stories.
On to the card!
sneak peek, click clicky to see the rest of it...

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...