O Happy Day

I love birthdays and celebrations of the kind when we can be thankful for another year of blessings and life :) Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday and birthdays are no different than that...another God given chance to celebrate all that He is in our lives...'cause without God, no life would be here :) This card is another one I sent to Dorothy...I couldn't get it to be less fuzzy, sorry...but I again used this sweet little girl swinging on her swing. I also used Red Riding hood trimmed ribbon from Stampin Up...love the stuff :)

This is an extra set of images I made to give to my friend Wendy for her birthday. It is the same idea I used for an image swap I did with some SBS sisters...I hope they've all received their images!! Using Red Riding Hood CS from SU, this is a simple holder made with 1/2 a sheet of 8.5x11" CS and only a few folds. I CB'ed the front flap to make it fancier and added a flower sticker! Fun!
Finally, here is a picture of our daughter from Denmark blowing out her candles and opening presents after her 17th birthday dinner last week. We are so thankful that her mom and dad and family shared her with us! We know that it must be hard for them not to be with their girl on her birthday, but we thank God that we could be here for her to experience a birthday celebration in the States. I cannot believe how time has flown by since she first came in August! She will be going home in only a few short months! Eek! And I am not very good at goodbyes....lalalalalalalala (fingers in ears, can't hear you!) Change of subject!

The second picture is a snapshot of both girls :) Love 'em!

I hope you are celebrating blessings today! Be well and smile :)

Content to Be :)

Hello friends :) This is another card sent to Dorothy for encouraging others. I love this image for a good reason! I thought up the name for this bella image "Content-to-be-a-Bella" and STAMPING BELLA's Emmabella HERSELF LOVED IT ENOUGH TO KEEP IT!!! We were on the cruise last October and she was taking suggestions! I looked at the expression on this particular bella and thought...she looks so content! And who wouldn't be content to be a Bella?? So, it was with great pleasure that, when she released the stamp image to the public for sale early this year, the name on the website was my "baby"! How very cool is that!?

Oh that we could be so content in all our circumstances! And yet I strive to be like Paul in the Philipians 4, content in all things....

I rejoice greatly in the Lord ....I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

Isn't that the truth!!

Blessings for all

Hi again! Here's a card that I made to send to Dorothy over at her Neverenoughrubberstamps blog . She is collecting cards to give out to people in need of a little encouragement. I made up several cards and this is one of my favorites. I received this stamping up image from Wish RAK and coloring her with my SU markers relieved some stress...don't you love to color?! This card was unique in that it is actually 2-in-1! You can see below that the little card with the image opens up with a little message (my calligraphy) and then the big card that it is mounted to also opens for a handwritten note. The little girl is so sweet and the bird on her hat made me smile! Can you see where I cuttlebugged the Cameo Coral paper too!? I really liked how it turned out!

As the card says, please have a blessed day! And rejoice in His handcrafted goodness today, won't you?

Off the map :)

A sunny hi to all my Frog Faithfuls!

First of all thank you for the emails I've received wondering where the heck I am...it is always a blessing to be thought of and cared for :) You could say that I have been *off the map* for a few weeks...in fact, I've actually been off the computer! My neck and back have been a pain recently and I just couldn't fathom sitting down and typing for any length of time. If I am on the computer for more than 10 minutes, my back goes numb up by my neck and pain goes lots of places. Don't worry though! Dr. Jesus and my earthly physicians are on the case!

I thought I'd share a few things in the next few posts that I've had a chance or two to work on these past few weeks. Most of the time, it was a "parts and pieces" approach. I'd ink up the images one day, color them the next, layer a few, etc until finally they were complete cards!

The one I want to share today is actually the last one I made (and finished a few minutes ago!) It is for a StampTV challenge set by Kurtis of Stampin' Kub fame. Kurtis' blog was one of a small handful of blogs that inspired me a few years ago to begin my own blog. In fact, Kurtis was the first person to comment on my blog! His style is always so clean and simple, so it was no surprise that his challenge was to make a Clean and Simple card using his sketch. Here it is!

The CS is Papertreyink's Lemon Tart, the ink is Ranger's Adirondack inks: Bright Orange and Terracotta and the stamps are Cornish Heritage Farm's Victorian Butterflies. Quite clean and simple, wouldn't you agree!?

The sun is shining so beautifully in New York this week, you'd almost believe that winter is over....but I've been living here for 45 years...I know better!

Through it all, remember, GOD IS SO, SO GOOD!!

Blessings!