FAll is Here

Yes I know it has been fall for many weeks now but we still have beautiful leaves on the trees and I love November. It is such a month of anticipation. I love Thanksgiving with family and food and all that remembering of past family times. It is so sad that retailers and the media make that jump from Halloween to Christmas and just leave out Thanksgiving so much of the time. I love the colors, the feeling, the crispness in the air like it is freshly created just for us. There is the Joy of the Christmas season to look forward to and that last deep breath before we plunge into the flurry of Holiday craziness. It's good to remember Thanksgiving and to give thanks to God who gives us so much daily.

On to crafting!!! I did win a prize and a nice gift for hosting the hop. Here are some of the cards I made that day for the contest. The prize was one from a random drawing of participants so it wasn't based on merit. I would like to win because my cards were great but maybe next time. It was a great day and Paperwishes.com is very generous with the prizes.
Hope everyone is having a great fall so far!

World Cardmaking Day

Today is World Card Making Day so I am very excited. My friends at Paper Wishes are having a day full of fun and prizes and I am playing along.

Here is a Halloween card using the Autumn paper here and the Tim Holtz stickers here. Thanks for joining me today and check out the other blogs in the blog hop!


Welcome to the Paper Wishes (http://www.paperwishes.com/?ptpsalt) BLOG HOP - we are so glad you are here to help us celebrate World Card Making Day! Some card making day trivia for you:
Today, card making is a worldwide hobby, especially popular in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
1 in 6 U.S. households participates in making cards
86% of scrapbookers also create handmade cards
92% of paper crafters create cards more than any other type of project
Be sure to check out all the blogs in this blog hop, as well as visit the Paper Wishes message board (http://forum.paperwishes.com/) as there are tons of things going on there today, all sponsored by Paper Wishes, with loads and loads of great prize packages! You don’t want to miss a chance to win!
This blog hop gives you TWO ways to win!!!
First – leave a comment on ALL THE BLOGS and a random drawing will be done to choose the winner, who will get a prize package from Paper Wishes.
Second – play H.O.T.P. (Hot Off The Press) bingo with us.
Visit each blogger on the blog hop to find their bingo square. (Make a note of the blog name for each square too!)
Click on this link to find the official BINGO CARD (http://forum.paperwishes.com/showthread.php?p=32493#post32493). (If you aren’t a member of the Paper Wishes message board yet, you are not only missing loads of fun but you may need to register to access the bingo card!)
To win, you will need to make a bingo (4 squares in a row, horizontal, vertical or diagonal) by doing what it shows in each square. There are some free squares; there are some where you just have to post something specific on the message board, and there are some that tell you to use something. Where it tells you to USE something, that means to make a project (any kind of papercrafting project – a card, an ATC, a bookmark, a tag, etc.) with the item listed in that square.
When you have your BINGO ready, follow these directions:
Go to the Paper Wishes Message Board and click on “post reply” on THIS THREAD (http://forum.paperwishes.com/showthread.php?t=2297).
In your reply tell us the four squares you are using for your bingo.
Tell us the square number AND the name of the blog for any squares you are using that were mentioned on a blog.
Post the items for each square in your reply, including a picture of the project you made for any square with directions to USE something.
We will randomly select a winner from all the correct bingo entries! Be sure that we have either your blog address or your email so that we know how to contact you if you are a winner!!!
Your bingo must be posted to the Paper Wishes message board not later than midnight U.S. eastern time to be eligible for the prize drawing!

The BINGO SQUARE FOR THIS BLOG IS: __P16__

Here are all the participating blogs for this blog hop:

Nancy (http://www.nancyscreativespace.blogspot.com)
Penny (http://www.pennydouph.blogspot.com/)
Michelle (http://preciousthoughtscards.blogspot.com)
Robin You are here!
Patti (http://pattiscards.blogspot.com/)
Cheryl (http://cheringpapermemories.blogspot.com/)
Sam (http://unteachablepig.blogspot.com)

So on with the fun – it doesn’t matter where you start the blog hop, just see where you are on the list above and make sure you visit them all and leave some sweetness behind!

New Cards Again

You are wondering where have I been? I have been spending time with my husband through open heart surgery and the aftermath. He had it on July 7th and is doing well but it is a big ordeal. I hope to never go through it myself.

Finally I am back to making cards and am enjoying it immensely. I just created a canvas mixed media piece called Paris that I am giving my mother. I made my granddaughter a Pillowcase dress. The elephant baby card has a circle in the center and when you open it the baby elephant appears. It is called a Marquee Card and I found out how to do it here. I am very proud of the card although you can't tell how neat it is without seeing it open. I am creating everyday. Unfortunately my craft room is still a disaster but I have hopes of getting it clean this year!! I don't know why I think it will happen, mostly it seems to be getting worse!
Here are my latest works. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Happy Fourth of July

Ok so it is a little early. But I feel somewhat festive after seeing lots of other blog's nice 4th crafts and decorations. I am a major slacker as a blogger and crafter this year. Of course my husband is facing open heart surgery in one week and life is very strange right now.

I barely survived Vacation Bible school and was home for one hour before hubby and I went to the hospital for his chest pains. He is doing ok now but the surgery looms and takes over most of my thoughts. Still it is the Fourth of July weekend and we plan to have a great time.

Here are some of my VBS crafts and some cards I have made lately. The sheep holds coins or secrets and is made from a film canister. There were more cool crafts but I don't have pics now.

Hope everyone has a great 4th!

Surgery and Rainbows

Well for the first time since I was five years old I had surgery(on May 16th). I came home the same day and have been laying around since. It is not that much fun to have to lay around.
We had a bad storm a couple of days ago and this fabulous rainbow afterwards. After the tornadoes that swept through here a couple of weeks ago I am glad to be reminded of God's protection and how little our damage was compared to others in the county.

In crafting news here is my Mother's day card for my Mom, a get well card and a card for my daughter. I haven't made anything since the surgery but hope to get back to work soon. Vacation bible school has sneaked up on me again and I am getting ready for the big push and panic before it starts.
Hope everyone has a great week!

Secret Garden Tag Swap

I visited my daughter in Central North Carolina for 3 days this week. I had a great time. I got to visit 2 different Mighty Dollar Stores where they have all different kinds of clear stamps and scrapbook embellishments that are only $1. I got about 5 stamp sets. a lot of sets of Jolee's dimensional stickers and lots of glitter glue all at $1 each. I love a good bargain!!
Monday I finally got my tags mailed for the Secret Garden Swap. I never asked if it was supposed to be about the book or just any secret garden so I went with the book because it has always been one of my favorites. Here are my tags. I love tags swaps and always promised myself that when I get them I will display them by hanging a long ribbon and clothes pin each one to it like a garland. This time I am really going to do that. Hope everyone has a great week!

A Joyous Easter to All

It feels like Springtime is really here today. And tomorrow is Easter. No snow covered Easter egg hunts this year. I am waiting for my only granddaughter(3 yrs old) to come and dye eggs with me. Next year there will be 3 but I don't think the new ones will be dying eggs! I love Easter. The day we celebrate the Resurrection of Christ and the beginning of a new world. What a great blessing it is. I have not made much stuff this Easter. Just a sign and one card. Too much going on in my life right now. But I did find a new tablecloth in the closet,(forgot to look in the bag of stuff my mother gave me last year) and decorated my table. So Happy Easter and have a great holiday.

Iris Spring

Here in Greeneville, Tennessee we have an Iris Festival every year. At the theater where I work we have an art display that is all Irises so I have been seeing Iris's a lot. I needed to make cards for the women in my bible study group so thought that Irises would be a good theme. I stamped a stack of Irises and colored them with my watercolor markers and blender pen. It has taken me forever to make the cards but now they are finished. I should be making Easter cards. Here are my Iris cards. HOpe everyone is having a lovely spring!

Spring is Here!

Yes it is Spring here in NorthEast Tennessee. There were many days of lovely warm weather with a bright blue sky and everything was blooming. Now of course we have had 4 days of solid gray skies and cold -- but that is what Spring is all about here. I am not discouraged. I love spring even when it gets cold again. I went to a large Scrapbooking Store in Pigeon Forge yesterday and was there just in time to get to make a card in a free demo. It was fun and I love the card. It is the one with the daffodils. Then I got a new stamp set with the little girl and the cat from Flower Soft. I made the purple card with it and just love the set. NOw I am thinking of Easter and all kinds of spring crafts. I would like to say I took the lovely sunrise pictures from our front yard but I have to admit i would never be up that early. My husband took it them as he went to raise his flag.
I'm off to make more cards. Next week I am starting to clean my craft room for real!! Have a great week!

A Tribute

I haven't been able to post for awhile as just too much had been going on in my life. I did want to pay tribute to a dear friend of mine.

ON February 28th, 2011 my friend Pat Phillips went home to be with the Lord. She has been a great friend to me even though she was 30 years older than me. She has been such an inspiration to me. When I was in my 20's she taught me that it was ok to love dolls even when you were an adult. She encouraged me to make my first soft sculpture doll and even made a kimono for it. She always encouraged me and was so complimentary of stuff I made even though she was a true artist herself. She had been very discouraged that she couldn't sew, paint, or draw much anymore since a stroke a few years ago but did get to make Valentine Paperdolls with us when I was in Florida about a week before she died. She has been a true mentor to me and I just wanted to say thank you to her. I will miss her always.

This is a card I made for my Mom but it reminds me of Pat too.

Happy Valentines Day

I am off to Fla in a few hours. Once more I will hurl through the air in a tin can! It has been a hard week: my sister in the hospital, my husband sick, and me trying to get ready to leave for Fla. But tonight I will be there! I will be spoiled by my parents and hopefully much warmer than here although it is a beautiful day here too. Due to all the problems this week I was unable to make Valentines which is very disappointing but here are more of the tags I made for the swap. HOpe everyone has a great week and A Happy Valentines Day!

Valentines On the Brain

Well I love Valentines and the older the better. I love Victorian ones but I especially love the cutsie children's cards from the 30's through 60's. My mother collects them. I recently finished tags for a Valentine Swap(see link at right) and sent them off. Now I can focus on this year's valentine paperdoll class that I will teach when I go to Fla in a few weeks. I think this one will be a garland of 3 dolls to hang up. Everywhere in blog land are lots of valentines and it makes me feel very creative. There will be more to come on the subject. Here are some pics of my tags! Have a great week.

Snowy Day

So I was supposed to work today but the load of snow last night prevented us from having the show tonight and I got to stay Home! I am still recovering from my trips and haven't gotten enough rest yet so I am very happy not to have to go anywhere. The snow is thick on the ground but not wet and clinging to the trees. It is still very pretty. I looked out the window and the sun was shining on this cardinal in the tree and it was so bright it was almost glowing. IT would have made an excellent pic if I was closer but this one is ok. Love red birds in the snow! I also finished making thank yous for Christmas gifts and now can write on them and mail them. I feel like I have accomplished a lot but dreaded craft room cleaning up is calling louder than ever. Hope everyone is warm and dry!