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

With Sympathy-BBTB2 Challenge

Hello my crafty friends, Happy Monday to you all. I hope you are nice and warm where ever you are. It is snowing here and we are supposed to get 5 to 7 inches. So my world is nice and white. lol But I didn't ask you here to talk about the weather! As you know Monday's always bring a new challenge over at BBTB2. My sweet and talented design team sister, Sharon, is hosting this week and her challenge to us was to make a sympathy card. I don't know about you, but I tend to struggle with these types of cards. You don't want it to look all happy, but you don't want it to be sad either. You want it to be comforting to the person you are sending it to. I also always wait until I need a sympathy card so I was glad to see this challenge from Sharon because it will be nice to have some on hand in my stash. Of course we all wish we didn't have to make them but the simple fact of life is that we do need them. So after looking through Pinterest for some inspiration, I got started. I used the CTMH Cricut cartridge Art Philosophy for my "doily" looking mat. I then used My Creative Time stamps dies for my tree and sentiment. My little butterflies are a Studio G. And that's it. I kept it pretty simple. I'm not quite sure if I like it or not, but I don't hate it either. lol 

Need some more inspiration? Look no farther than my design team sisters, go to BBTB2 and check out what they have for you. Then it is your turn, use your Cricut to make a sympathy card and link up with us!

As always I want to thank you for taking time out of your busy life to visit me. Your sweet comments always warm my heart!! Crafty hugs, Brenda

Home is Where You Hang Your Heart!

Hello Cardz TV Gallery fans, didn't Mary and Anita get this year off on a great start with their cards?!!! I hope you are ready for a fun new year with great projects Monday through Friday here at Cardz TV. Brenda here from Friends Craftin With Friends and I have a card for you that used 3 Cardz TV stamp sets on it. It is a swing card with three squares that swing. I used some heart dies to cut out my hearts all other dies are included with this die set. My papers are some snippets I had left over from another card, I threw some sequins on and called it done. I will be going to the Playground to play because I used some snippets on this card. 

The stamp sets I used are:
Just Saying, Congratulations, and Count Your Blessings. You can find them here. 

I hope you have enjoyed my little swing card. I plan on keeping it for when someone we know gets a new home so it will go in my stash. I want to thank you for taking the time to come and visit us here at Card TV Gallery and I hope you will continue to come back each day. Crafty hugs, Brenda

Entering this card over at the Playground where the challenge is always to use snippets on your project.

http://pixiescraftyworkshop.blogspot.com/2015/01/pixies-snippets-playground-week-159.html

Some People Are Worth Melting For

Hello my crafty friends, I hope you are all doing well today. Don't faint at me posting a second time this week! lol We went to our granddaughter's birthday party on Sunday and of course like all little girls, she loves the movie Frozen and she loves Olaf. So I knew I wanted to make her an Olaf birthday card. So I search images on the web and found one that I liked and printed it out. I layered it on some lavender pattern paper, then I cut my white layer and using a Martha Steward punch, I punched the 4 corners out. I added some more snowflakes cut using My Creative Time snowflakes. I used white stickles on my corner snowflakes and purple stickles on my purple snowflakes. I used clear Wink of Stella on Olaf and tried to capture that in my first photo, enlarge the picture and you should be able to see it. I added some more snowflakes on the inside of my card and took My Creative Time letter stamps and made my "birthday Leah" and stamped it. Then I used My Creative Time "happy" die to die cut the word out of some of the same lavender pattern paper. And that is it. A pretty easy card to make and our granddaughter loved it. 

Here is our adorable granddaughter who shares a birthday with her papaw, we gave her an Olaf shirt too.