Wise Men....and a little Update

Hello all my crafty friends, it is my turn to post at Cardz TV Gallery. It's been a rough few months with Christmas not being much easier since the loss of my sweet husband, but with all the grands and our sons, I will get through it.  I have to say, it will be painful all the same and by far the hardest thing I've ever had to do.

I'm really not on top of my game yet, so I will apologize ahead of time. My card for today is a traditional one, one that shows us what the Christmas season is really all about. I stamped my wise men and the city of Bethlehem in black ink and then embossed it in clear embossing ink. That way I could sponge my night sky without messing up my stamping. And no, your eyes aren't crooked...I stamped my stamp crooked. Told you I wasn't on my game. Anyway I proceeded to sponge my skyline with distress inks. I then dribble water on to the distress inks for the "starry sky". Cut out my scene and layered it onto my card base. I did the same thing on the inside as I did on the outside. Mary's sentiments were perfect for this image. Her stamp sets always have the perfect sentiment on them. You can buy this stamp set here as well as many other fabulous Cardz TV stamps sets!  

Recipe:
sentiment stamps: Cardz TV stamps Glad Tidings
Wise Men stamp set: SU Come to Bethlehem
My Creative Time: More Stitched Rectangle dies
distress ink colors: Broken China, Faded Jeans, Stormy Sky, and Chipped Sapphire
ink: Versafine Black Onyx
embossing powder: Ranger clear
paper: Neenah Bright White and SU Heavy weight whisper white

I want to take a moment and thank all my wonderful blogging friends who have left me such sweet and loving comments since the passing of my husband. It warms my heart to know how much you all care about me! I also want to say a huge thank you for all the beautiful sympathy cards I received, between my blogging friends, friends, family and the community the pile of cards was over a 1 foot high. Unbelievable! It was a long viewing, with people standing in line for an hour and 45 minutes. Our son's knew their dad was well respected in our community and had lots of friends, but even they were amazed at the amount of people that showed up for his viewing. I wasn't and knew that it was going to be like that. My husband was an amazing man, a man that so many respected and loved. Just before he passed, I saw grown men coming to our home to see him and leaving weeping their eyes out. Very heartbreaking for everyone. I still can't write or talk about him without the tears streaming down my face. The amount of food that came into this house was amazing as well. Everyone has been so amazing to me!! Family and friends have kept me busy by whisking me off on trips, evening trips, out to eat or just keeping me company in the evenings. So much love offered to me by everyone and that it just melts my heart! I have always know how blessed I've been, but it was really hammered home to me after the passing of my husband just how blessed I still am!  I want to thank everyone as well for their wonderful Christmas cards that have been sent to me. I didn't get any cards out myself. I just got through sending out over 60 thank you cards from the funeral stuff. That doesn't even include the people that donated to Hospice in my husbands memory! So as you can see what amazing people I have in my life and that includes all my sweet and amazing blogging friends!! I just can't even imagine you all not being a part of my life! So I'm sending all my love to you all this Christmas, wishing you the best life has to offer you because you all truly deserve only the best life has to offer. 

Here is my sweet husband's obit, I hope you don't think ill of me for sharing it. He just was my world and I loved him so and was so proud of him. If you have stuck with me through this long post, thank you and bless you. 

I will be back in the new year to resume my DT duties and hopefully to share some scrapbooking pages/pocket scrapping. Crafty hugs and love to you all! Brenda

Dwayne T. Lawrence 01/03/1963 - 10/10/2015 Dwayne T. Lawrence, 52, of Hanover, entered into God’s eternal care Saturday, October 10, 2015 at his home surrounded by his family. He was the husband of Brenda S. (Squires) Lawrence to whom he was married 22 years.  Born January 3, 1963 in Hanover, he was the son of Barbara A. (Hampton) Lawrence of Hanover and the late Mark D. Lawrence.  Dwayne was employed at Hanover Prest Paving, Hanover and was a lifelong farmer. He was a 1980 graduate of New Oxford High School and a member of Sacred Heart Basilica and SAVES. His passion was farming and he enjoyed sharing the farming experience with his sons and grandchildren. He also enjoyed fishing and spending time with his family and friends.  Surviving in addition to his wife and mother are six sons; Lance Shamer and his wife Kristin of Fort Drum, NY, Josh Lawrence and his wife Jill of Abbottstown, Corey Shamer and his fiancé Rebecca of Taneytown, MD, Evan Lawrence and his wife Brittany of New Oxford, Brian Lawrence and his wife Amie of Spencer, Iowa and Bret Lawrence of Hanover, 8 grandchildren and two siblings; Keith Lawrence of Hanover and Belinda Arnold of McSherrystown.  A Mass of Christian Burial will be held 10 a.m. Wednesday, October 14, 2015 at Sacred Heart Basilica, Edgegrove, with Rev. Joseph R. Howard as celebrant. Burial will follow in Rest Haven Cemetery, Hanover. Friends and relatives will be received Tuesday 6 to 8 p.m. at Murphy Funeral Home, 501 Ridge Ave., McSherrystown, with a prayer service at 8 pm.  Contributions in memory of Dwayne may be made to VNA/Hospice, 440 N. Madison Street, Hanover, PA 17331. Guestbook Click here to sign the guestbook

Jingle On

Hello Cardz TV Gallery fans, Brenda here from Friends Craftin' with Friends and it's my turn to share a project with you. Right now my projects are simple and all done in advance, scheduled to post as I am taking time off since the passing of my husband. So please pardon my quickie cards. Crafty hugs, Brenda

Recipe:

Paper: Scrap piece from the Paper Studio-Hobby Lobby

Greenery:  Martha Steward branch punch

Jingle Bell: My Creative Time Warm Holiday Fun Stamp and Die set

Sentiments: Cardz TV Naughty or Nice stamp set

Rudolph Day

Hello my crafty friends, sorry I have been MIA lately. I hurt my ribs right before the wedding, and then there was the wedding, visiting grandkids, a gender reveal party, chemo and of course Father's Day-busy times. Hubby had an allergic reaction to chemo this past time while getting it, scared the daylights out of me but the nurses were quick and had him back in shape. They were really awesome and kept a great eye on him while he finished up chemo. He finished his chemo and he finished up without any more reactions thank goodness. 

Well I finally got into my crafty room and made a card for Rudolph day, which started today. It always starts on the 25th of each month and you have until the end of the month to link up your card. I love playing along as often as I can, it gives me some Christmas cards made ahead of time for once. lol  My card is a total CASE. You can see the original card here. Mine isn't as CAS as Kristie's but I am happy with the way it came out. I fell in love with Kristie's card as soon as I saw it and so I thought I would try to CASE it. I used Lawn Fawn's Joy to the Woods stamp set, my watercolors and water color paper, hot pressed. I ordered hot pressed by mistake and then wondered what the difference was between hot and cold press watercolor paper. I found out that hot press watercolor paper is smooth and the colors sit more on top of the paper instead of absorbing into the paper thus making them look more vibrant. Cold press is textured and the watercolors absorb more into the paper. Both are neat and can have a place in the craft room. So it was a happy mistake, why don't you try both and see if you love them both?! So I took my watercolor paper and cut it to size to fit on my A2 card base. I taped around my paper with micro-pore tape to give a border. Then I water colored a sky background using black watercolor. I heat to dry it, then darken the upper part of the sky some more, then dried it with my heat gun. I popped up my birch trees and glued my cardinal down flat on the birch tree. I cut my "merry" out and glued it down. My "Christmas" was stamped with the rotary alpha stamp by SU. I was a little sloppy with it, I really need to practice using it. lol And I got some black ink underneath my sentiment, so I took a red Spectrum Noir maker and made a red line at the bottom of my card as well as on the inside. I want to see how a few silver stars will look yet in the sky, so may add some of them later. But that is about it. My CASE'd card. I hope you like my little CASE'd card and I want to thank you for popping by for a visit today. It always makes my day when you visit me and I love your sweet, sweet comments! I am going to try and get some wedding pics uploaded as well as the results from the gender reveal party. Crafty hugs, Brenda

Recipe:

Lawn Fawn, Joy to the Woods

My Creative Time, Boughs of Holly

hot press watercolor paper

Loi Water colors Pocket Field Sketch Box 

Rudolph Day

Hi my crafty friends, I have two Christmas cards I wanted to share with you. The first one I'm entering in the Rudolph Day challenge. Rudolph Day always starts on the 25th of each month and ends on the last day of that same month. So it is always fun to play along so I will have a nice stash of Christmas cards when the time comes. For this Rudolph Day card, I used a stencil from Stamplorations that I won over at Darnell's NBUS challenge one time. I used white embossing paste with the tree stencil, it actually has to trees in this stencil! Then I put SU gold embossing powder on it. Let it dry and then heated the gold. I popped it up on foam tape to my card base.  I need a little more practice with getting the embossing paste smooth. lol  I did the sentiment the in the same embossing paste. Just a very simple CAS card. 

For my second card, I was going to enter it into the Muse Christmas Vision challenge, but of course I didn't get the card photograph so it didn't get entered. But I did play along! So that makes two more Christmas cards for my stash. For this one I used a SU stamp set, added some stickles and some Wink of Stella to the pine cone and needles. I also moved the pine needles just a smidgen and re-stamped with white ink to make the pine needles not so stark looking. Not sure I like it though, but it is done, so it is staying that way. lol  Nothing really to this one either. Cut my ovals using a My Creative Time die. Just easy peasy, plain Jane. 

Thanks for taking the time from your busy day and visiting me. I so love when you do and your comments always lift my spirits! Crafty hugs, Brenda

Muse-Christmas Visions Challenge

Hi my crafty friends, a little update on hubby and then I have a card believe it or not. Hubby had a partial treatment today, the one chemo he didn't get because that is every two weeks, so next week he will get it. He is have some better days, not great, but better and better is always good! Still getting fevers as well, but they aren't as high, but we have been keeping on top of them with the Tylenol and ice packs. Next week he will get everything in his treatment including the pump he will wear for 48 hours. But it will be done differently this go around. The pump gets dropped off here at our home and then a nurse will come to the house will hook hubby up and then will come back to take it off. Last time the nurse in the chemo center put it on for him and then we would go back in to get it off. It will be nice not to have to run back in just to get it taken off. Now it is a wait and see game, hopefully this treatment will shrink the larger tumor and make the smaller ones disappear like it did last time. So keeping the faith and fingers crossed and looking forward to better days with some normalcy. This care giver is getting worn out! But will continue to care for hubby as long as needed. The funeral for my mother went well and it was good to get together with family. DS has been home from college for a week now and it is good to have him home. I think. He still has boxes and his crap all over the house. lol He has been working in the fields and working at the movie house, so not much time for him to clean up his stuff. Hopefully soon! It is just finding a place to store everything until Aug. when school starts again. Hubby isn't able to get into the fields yet, so some of our sons are doing what they can. Hopefully soon hubby will be able to get in the tractor and go, he really needs to and I really need him to be able to do just that! 

There's a new challenge in town and it is called Muse-Christmas Visions. A designer team member posts a card and you are to take inspiration from that card. Here is the card that was posted by designer Kimberly Wiener:

Beautiful isn't it?! Well I happened to receive a box of watercolors from my Momma Mary for my birthday, wasn't that so sweet of her?!! Thanks Momma Mary!! I haven't done much watercoloring, in fact, I don't think I've done anything but smooshing with distress inks and a spritz of water. lol So this may very well be my first time watercoloring. And even though it isn't great, it isn't to bad either. I will take it! The inside turned out better than the outside did, but that's ok, I'm still pretty happy with it. I took Kimberly's card and kinda' CASED it-I did say kinda' didn't I? lol  So besides my new Koi Watercolors which are NBUS, I also used a NBUS stamp set that I won in a NBUS challenge by my Auntie Darnell! Thanks Auntie!!! I was happy to be able to play with some of my NBUS, got plenty  more to go though. 

Recipe:
watercolor paper
Koi Watercolor Pocket Field Sketch box paints
DCWV Gold Foil paper
My Creative Time Stitched Rectangular Frame Dies and More
Stamplorations Holiday Sketches Christmas Flower stamp set
SU Vanilla cardstock for the card base
SU Gold Embossing Powder
Sequins from Peachy Cheap

Rudolph Day

Hello my crafty friends, I have just a little update before I show you my card. We went to see the family doctor again on Monday and he is running more blood tests on Lyme's, Pancreatis and the usual blood work and a abdomen/pelvic CAT scan. Saw our local oncologist today and he was more concerned this the fevers are higher than we first suspected. Our thermometer wasn't working right and we got a new one. Hubby's fever went up to 101.8 on Sunday evening, so doc didn't like that. He added on more blood work, port blood withdrawal and he added a chest CAT scan to the family doctors scan. Hubby has already did the blood work today and the CAT scan is for Thursday afternoon. So now it is just a matter of trying to "catch" whatever is causing the fevers with the blood work and scan. I know stuff going on in the blood work doesn't always show up right away. It took almost 2 years to get the "right" blood work to show up with my Lupus when they were trying to diagnose me. Doc talked to us about that and I told him I could relate, and when he found out that I had Lupus and RA, he said that I know exactly what he is talking about. Even now my doctor doesn't "catch" my Lupus acting up with blood work because the timing is usually off. So hopefully they will find something. If they can't after extensive testing,  doc said he will start hubby on the backup chemo plan and if it is his tumors causing the fever, and if the treatment works well like it did the first time, that could make the fevers go away. So we will see how it goes. I feel much better now that they are taking these fevers more serious! Last time hubby had a fever was when his tumor ruptured in the colon making him a lifetime chemo patient, but we didn't know he had a tumor. Family doc didn't take his fevers serious then either because his blood work was perfect. Well his blood work has been perfect this whole time all through chemo! So you can't go by just the blood work. Sorry, I said this was going to be quick and it wasn't. lol

Ok, I have been so tense, stressed and just plain in a funk so I had to go into my craft room for a while just to get away from all of this health stuff. It's weird because part of me wants to craft, but another part of me doesn't want too. But I forced myself to make a card for Rudolph Day. And low and behold I made two Christmas cards to go into my stash for this Christmas. But the one I'm entering into the Rudolph Day is the first one. Rudolph Day  always starts on the 25th of each month and runs to the end of that month. It's a great way to build your Christmas card stash, so I've been trying to play along each month, but I missed March's. Anyway I'm entering my card over at Rudolph Day. My card is a standard A2. I used some cork board material that Loll sent to me, bless her heart, she is just the sweetest! I also used SU's Wondrous Wreath and a sentiment from My Creative Time, as is my stitched layer. I embossed the sentiment in SU gold embossing powder along with the second layer of my wreath. I used my Misti to stamp the layers to my wreath, that worked out perfectly, I just didn't die cut it perfectly. lol But it wasn't to bad and I am please with how this card came out. I hope you like it too.

 Showing the gold shine. May stamp this bow and emboss in gold and then cut it out. I don't like that the bow loops don't have any "holes" in them. lol

My second card is just a simple little card too. I used My Creative Time Products on this one.

Thanks for stopping by to visit me, I always appreciate when you stop by. I love the love you guys always leave me, you are just the best!! Crafty hugs, Brenda

NUBUS and Rudy Day Challenges

Hello and yes I'm back again. lol I had some cards made for Rudolph Day and for Darnell's NBUS challenge and I have just been sitting on them for about a week now. Don't ask me why,  just not been in the groove at all. Anyway, I made 2 each of the skate's and mitten's cards. I used My Creative Stitched Oval dies, the skates and mittens are also from MCT and the poinsettia's are a die from Simon Says. Sentiments and pine is from MCT stamps. I like how cute and simple these cards are and I love that I added 4 more cards to my Christmas card stash. Yay for me! The NBUS was the oval dies as well as the mittens, skates and poinsettia dies. 

These two cards I made last month, but because the month was short I didn't get them in to play along with Rudy day, so I'm showing them here.  I think I used the Cricut cart Simple Holiday Cards to make this one. I kept my pieces and made another card just like it only in reverse. I think it made such pretty, simple cards for my Christmas stash. 

Since I used some snippets on my first two cards (for the skates, mittens and poinsettia) I'm going to go over the pond to play at the Playground.  I haven't been there in quiet a while so I'm looking forward to playing along. Of course I will also link up with Darnell's NBUS challenge to use your never been used schtuff, which I'm so sad to say I have a lot of! And last but not least I'm playing along with Rudolph Day. Thanks everyone and thanks for taking time from your day to visit me. Your comments always make my day brighter! Crafty hugs, Brenda

What's old is new again!

Hello crafty friends, I hope you had a wonderful weekend. We woke up on Sunday to it snowing. Then it turned to freezing rain in the later afternoon. I am so over winter, and I think we all are. So why isn't winter leaving yet?! Since it came in like a lion, I am hoping that it goes out like a lamb. lol Enough about the weather, it already gets to much attention!

Well since today is Monday, you all know that means it is time for a new challenge over at BBTB2. My sweet design team sister, Emily, has chosen our theme this week. And she has told us that it is National Old Stuff Day. Who knew?! So in honor of that we are to use a Cricut cartridge we haven't use in at least 6 months. Well I haven't used a lot of mine in 6 months because I have fallen in love the the CTMH Cricut carts and use them a good bit. But I did go through and used a cartridge that I first go when I got my Cricut and that is Beyond Birthdays. I also use Solar System digi for my world. 

I used my Explore to layout my window card base on, which is from Beyond Birthdays. I then wasn't sure where I was going to go with it, and then saw the Peace on Earth cut on BB, so I then decided to make it a Christmas card. Then I saw the dove with the olive branch, and thought that went well with the Peace on Earth. So I laid two out. Then of course I needed an earth, and I found that in Solar System digital images. I used dark blue cardstock for my base. I used all snippets for my card except for the card base. The blue for the ocean on my world was a cloud looking paper, but I thought it worked well for on the earth. The land is green foil paper. The "peace" shadow is some left over from the blue card base and the "peace" on top is cut from silver foil paper. The doves are just from white cardstock and the olive branches are cut from the same green foil paper as the world land. I just added a simple Merry Christmas to the inside and called it done. Not my most favorite card, but I loved the idea behind it. lol Want more inspiration? Then look no farther than my DT sisters, they have some fabulous projects for you today!! After you are done being inspired, make a project using a cartridge that you haven't used in a long time! Then link up with us.

As always I want to take a minute to thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to stop by and visit me. I so appreciate your sweet comments. You always make my day and I always enjoy your visits! Crafty hugs, Brenda

Crazy in Love

Hello all my crafty friends, I hope you are having a wonderful hump day!! I am trying to catch up this morning with some commenting and going through emails. I was away on Monday all day, then away again yesterday all day. We went up to DS's college to look at apartments with him and boy was I exhausted when we got home! It was in and out DS's car what felt like a 100 times, in and out of his dorm room many times, up many flights of steps every place we went, sometimes to a third floor and back down. This momma is getting to old for that!! lol But it was good to spend the day with him looking at apartments. We took him to lunch and then before leaving we took him shopping to buy him some snacks/food for in his dorm. I think he was a happy camper. lol

It is my turn to post over at Cardz TV Gallery today and  I made a couple of cards. The first one is a Valentine themed, anniversary or just a love card. The stamp set I used on this one is Heart to Heart and you can find it here. I used some new Anna Griffin Cuttlebug folders that had came in the mail to me yesterday. So beautiful they are, they are for 5x7 cards, but this card is an A2 card, so not the whole embossing area is on this one. I still love it. The heart die is a Simon Say's die and I took a finger dauber with Hero Art's Shadow ink in Pale Tomato and inked the center of the heart, then I use what a left on my dauber to lightly ink the edge of the heart and around on the embossing. The heart is popped up. 

My second card is a Christmas card. Yes, Christmas is done with and over, but I vowed to make Christmas cards all year long so I would have some made and ready to go when the time comes. lol  I used two of Mary's Cardz TV stamp sets on this one, Snow Day and Christmas Joy and you can find them right here. I used blue gold foil paper and silver/white glitter paper by DCWV. This is the oddest glitter paper, it is so smooth but so sparkly and no glitter comes off what so ever. But it had a plastic coating on the back which is a little hard to die cut through. This die is a Spellbinder's die, Picture Perfect and I won it back a spell at the Pixie Playground for using snippets. Love, love, love this die!! This card looks so much prettier in real life. I didn't get home last night in time to take my pictures in the daylight, so my lighting isn't very good on either card. The inside I used some left over glitter paper to punch with my Martha Steward snowflake punch. Now believe it or not this glitter paper punches awesome with a punch. Go figure, you would think it would die cut easier, not punch easier. lol I stamped my sentiment and call this one done. I was in a hurry to get these cards done, and since I was out all week, this is all I came up with. lol 

Well I want to thank you for taking time out of your busy day just to visit me. It sure means a lot to me and I hope you visiting as well. I'm always up for visitors!! Crafty hugs, Brenda

Rudolph Day & Snippet's Playground!

Hello my crafty friends,  I hope your day is going great! More snow for today but it should only be a dusting to 2" and it is supposed to come this afternoon. Ok, that I can live with even though I don't want it, I will live with it. It's not like I have a choice, right?! lol

A long while back I entered a challenge one time. I wanted to enter more, but always forgot about it or was to lazy. It's called The Rudolph Challenge and if you haven't already guess it, they have a Christmas card challenge on the 25th of every month. Yea, I could definitely use a jump start on some Christmas cards!! So even though I don't make new year resolutions, I did challenge myself to play along each month with this challenge. Well I had from the 28 to the end of the month to get a card in. The end of the month is coming up fast, so I got on it before I already blew the first month!  For my cards, oh yes, you heard that right, I made 2-yes I'm so proud of myself. lol I'm gonna try to do at least two cards and more if I can. Both cards are the same design but with something different on it. I used My Creative Time dies and stamps to make this simple but pretty card. I tell you the pictures don't do them justice, they look much better in real life. Oh and wait, I can also enter the Snippet's Playground challenge because I used some snippets of Christmas papers. Yay!! Here are my two cards. I popped my layer up on white card base and used holographic paper for the deer. My layer is stitched even though I'm not sure you can see it. I waited to late in the day to get good pictures, sorry about that! My bracket, which I used snippets to cute, is stitched too, love stitched dies! Then there is the file tab that has my sentiment embossed in SU gold embossing powder. Over all I'm pretty happy with the way these turned out. 

As always thank you for taking time out of your busy day to visit me. It means the world to me and I love sitting with you a spell! Crafty hugs, Brenda

Thank You Snow Much!

Hello my crafty friends, I hope this Wednesday finds you warm and toasty. It's a cold one here and white. We don't have much snow, maybe 3 to 4 inches, but more is due to come on Thursday and then again on Sunday. Of course we all know how the weathermen work and their forecast changes between each broadcast! So hopefully we won't get any more snow this week. I don't mind the snow as long as it melts quickly and is all but gone before the next snow storm. lol I don't like when it hangs around all winter like it did last winter. Picky aren't I?! Let's just bring on Spring!!! lol I sure hope it is an early one this year.

Well onto my projects. It's my turn to post over at Cardz TV Gallery. My first project is a thank you card. And since it is winter and it has been snowing here and in NY where this card will be going, I decided to make it a snowman thank you card. I used the Cardz TV stamp set called "SNOW DAYS" and you can find that stamp set here. I used My Creative Time dies to put together my cute little snowman, the snow hills are also a MCT die as is the deer. I used MCT stamps to stamp my pine boughs-not really liking the ink I used to stamp them with, but what's done is done. I also stamp little snowflakes using 3 Twenty Craft Stamps. Then I took some stickles and added some sparkle and shine. 

My second card is a CASE (copy and share everything). You can see the original here. I loved this card Emma at My Creative Time With Emma made, and had to copy it. lol Only I didn't use "non" tacky glue and my sequins are caught. Oh well,  I knew not to use Tombow but couldn't find my glue that I use for shaker cards. And I had just used it!! I know it had to be right in front of my face and I just couldn't see it for seeing it. Please tell me that this happens to you too. This will be my husband's Valentine's card so he won't care if all the sequins don't shake. I used the Cardz TV stamp set called "HEART TO HEART" and you can find it here. Using all My Creative Time dies, I cut out to stitched hearts and scored a fold along the left heart bump and glued the first heart to this. This gave me by heart shaped card that would open. Then I took the "love" heart die and cut it out of paper and out of foam. I glued the foam to the back of the red paper love. I stamped the base heart with a MCT scripted stamp and then with Cardz TV stamp set "HEART TO HEART" and glued my key down that was cut out with a MCT die. I sprinkle my sequins in and then glue down the top layer with the acetate. Next time I won't make that same mistake of using the wrong glue. lol 

Check back at Cardz TV Gallery the rest of the week to see what awesome projects that my design team sister's have for you! As always I so appreciate you taking the time to stop and visit me, your comments always makes my heart sing! Crafty hugs, Brenda

You Make My Heart Sing

Hello my crafty friends, I hope you are having a wonderful weekend. I don't know how Sunday got here already, but it's here.

I love to visit a fellow blogger and her name is Michele over at "I Card Everyone" and she has encourage me to enter the challenge over at Muse, where it is their 100th challenge and 2 anniversary. And that challenge is to us her card as your inspiration, to have negative space on your card and to have a song incorporated in to it. Soooo, here is Michele's card and then I will show you mind.

Michele's Beautiful Card

My card-Can you guess my song?? My potty people were inspired by Darnell's card.

If you guessed Wild Thang, then you are right. Well I don't really know the name of the song, but it goes like this:

Wild thang, I think I love you....you make my heart sing. Ok I don't know the lyrics real well, but it is a fun song and it always cracks me up. lol I hope you know what song I'm talking about.  I used a My Creative Time Heart die to cut out my negative space, Then I took the positive part of the die cut and inked it with Hero Arts shadow ink Pale Tomato using a stamp from My Creative Time. The red heart came out the center of the die cut and I colored it with a Spectrum Noir marker, then popped it up on double thickness of foam tape after stamping my music notes on. I used Viva Decor pearl pen for the black pearls going around the heard. My potty people are a die also from My Creative Time as well as my stamped sentiment.  I got my sentiment on crooked though. I think  I will be using this card for hubby since we have an anniversary coming up next month, it will be our 22nd one and the chemo center gave us a very nice Christmas present. A night in Gettysburg at a very nice hotel, dinner for two and movies for two, we plan on going for our anniversary. We figured it up and he should be on his break from his pills then so he should be able to enjoy our meal. Wasn't that so sweet of the chemo center?!! Not sure why they pick us for this gift, but they did and we are very grateful. 

Ok go check our Michele's blog (she is so awesome and fun) and Muse cause maybe you may want to join in on a challenge there!! As always thanks for taking your time to stop by and visit me. I always love reading your comments. Crafty hugs, Brenda

Let It Snow-BBTB2 Challenge

Ok I'm not wishing for snow people! lol Hello my crafty friends, happy Monday to everyone! I hope everyone is staying warm from last weeks chilly willy weather. I think it is suppose to get in the 50's sometime this week. I can live with those temps! Hubby gets a break from his meds for a week and then will start back up for his 3 weeks. He got a special kind of medicine for the sores in his mouth and it is looking like it might help pretty good. We will find out for sure when he goes back on his pills again. So all and all I think it is going pretty well so far. That is such a blessing! 

As you know every Monday it is time for a new challenge over at BBTB2 and our sweet and talented DT sister, Michelle has given us the challenge of using a snowflake on our projects this week. It is winter and in a lot of areas the snow is flying....so a very fit challenge don't you think?! Now I'd like to say that I am loving my card, but I'm not. Now it could be my paper choices...I know it is my base paper choice. And I have to say that I'm not sure yet if I'm in love with the CTMH Artfully Sent cartridge yet. Now please note that I've only used this cartridge twice now, so I haven't given it a fair chance yet. I need to play more and I need to be more in the mood to get crafty and trust me I wasn't in a crafty mood today! So please don't go by what I say about this cartridge! So as you have gathered, I used the Artfully Sent cart to make my card. I used a black cardstock to cut out my swing card base from the cart. Then I picked an inside cut I wanted to use and cut that out of a blue sky looking paper. I also cut extra snowflakes from some dies-My Creative Time and a Simon Says die and sprinkle them on the outside swing and inside swing. That is about as creative as I got. Want some awesome inspiration? Go to BBTB2 and see what my DT sister's have for you, you will definitely be inspired! Then lets see your snowflake projects by linking up with us at BBTB2!

Thanks for taking the time to stop by and visiting me, sorry it wasn't a great visit this time around. lol Your visits always touch my heart and your comments make my day. Crafty hugs, Brenda

We Click! BBTB2 Challenge

Hello my crafty friends, Happy New Year!!!  Sorry I haven't did a post in so long. I took time off to do the holidays with my family. It was such a wonderful and fun holiday. I hope you all made wonderful memories with your families too. Can you believe we are in a new year?!! Me either! lol I'm looking forward to a better year for hubby-so my fingers and toes are crossed and my prayers go up constantly for him. 

Since it is the first Monday of the month, it is time for a new challenge for BBTB2 for the New Year and time for me to get back into the swing of things. Melanie is our sweet and talented host this week and she chose for use to use our favorite Cricut cut. Talk about a challenge!!! There are just way to many fabulous Cricut cuts and I couldn't choose. So I went with just using a cartridge, as I don't have a favorite cut or favorite cart because I love them all. So just before Christmas I got the CTMH Artfully Sent cartridge and it is a NBUS for me so I decided to use that one. I have to say that the handbook to this cart had me quite confused at first. So I went over to Pinterest and did a little search, watch a few video's and was ready to start making a card. So this card is a Pinterest inspired card. Nothing fancy about this card, just a plain jane one. I cut a card under the "sentiment" second of the handbook out of pattern paper, then I backed my "cut outs" with black and red papers. Using my Cuttlebug, I cut out the photo corners in red and black, laying them so that the red made a shadow. I added 3 sequins to the front and that was it. Put my inside mats in and used the positive camera cut on the inside of my card. I didn't put in a sentiment yet because I'm not sure what I am going to use. There you go, an easy peasy 7 x 5 done pretty fast. So come on in and join us on this challenge and lets see what is your favorite die cut. Our rules are simple and you will find them on the side bar over at BBTB2. My design team sisters have more inspiration for you, so check them out too at BBTB2. 

As always thanks for taking the time to stop by and visit my little ole blog. Your comments mean the world to me as does your visit. Crafty hugs, Brenda

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

http://www.djkardkreations.com/2015/01/happy-new-year-2015-nbus-challenge-3.html because I'm using a NBUS Cricut cartridge

http://dianamlarson.blogspot.com/2015/01/dlart-january-linky-challenge.html Anything Goes

Plane & Simple

Hello my crafty friends, I have a quick post for you today. I will be putting up corn tonight and have to get my chores done for today. I made a CAS card using My Creative Time stamps and dies as well as some snippets. It is a plain card, but I love the way it turned out. I was thinking about saving this one and sending to DS at college but then I thought it might embarrass him to get this with having 3 other room mates. Would you send this if you were me?? Maybe I should just save it for hubby and stick with funny cards to DS. I just don't know....Anyway thanks for stopping by for a spell today and as always your comments always make me smile and I so appreciate you coming by. Now it is off to work I go....Crafty hugs, Brenda