Happy Halloween

 A couple quick Halloween cards for the grandkids. I also made another one like I had made previously. Since they're for two families, I can go with duplicates:)

This first one is for our one granddaughter. I used House Mouse stamps from The Paper Studio. I stamped the image with Memento black ink and colored with copics. I matted with black, mounted on foam squares and added Stardust Stickles to the wings. I colored the sentiment with markers.

I used a Stampin' Up! stamp and SU punches for this tag. I colored the spider and added googlie eyes and mounted on foam squares. The patterned papers are from a Recollections pad.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Happy Anniversary! And Another Update on my Dad

Today is our son and daughter-in-law's eighth anniversary! Sure doesn't seem like their wedding was eight years ago already.

I had to take some time last night and make them a card. I wish I had had more time, but this will have to do. I did the background with Spellbinders dies. The image is a JustRite Stamper stamp. I colored it with Copics and added gems to the flower centers. That's it:)

More news about my dad: Radiation is not out of the question yet, unfortunately. I guess what they removed was not lymph nodes after all, but cancer cells. They are not sure if they got everything or not. He will have to choose between monitoring with ultrasounds or having radiation. He will be meeting with an oncologist on Thursday and will then meet with his doctor again and make his decision.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Updates

Thanks so much for all of your prayers for my dad! He had his PET scan last Thursday and got a call from his doctor already. He does not have to have radiation at this time! They are going to continue to keep a close eye on him.

As to my whereabouts for the past week, this picture is a clue. We went to Disney World! We left on Sunday and got back home on Saturday. We were there with our daughter, son, son-in-law, daughter-in-law and four of our grandchildren. (Wyatt stayed home with his other grandparents. Much better choice for him, and a bit easier for us.) What an amazing time we had - totally unbelievable! I think we saw most everything that there was to see. (Actually, I'm pretty sure it's not possible to see EVERYTHING on one trip, but we sure tried our best!)

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Update and Request For More Prayers

Still no stamping time. But, I have another update on my dad. His lymph nodes tested positive for squamous cell cancer. He will be having a PET scan on Thursday. If nothing shows up, hurrah!! If they find more cancer, he will have to undergo seven weeks of radiation. I would appreciate any prayers that his PET scan is clean. Thank you SO much..

 Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Another Update

My dad's surgery is now scheduled for Monday. My sister was able to arrange her work schedule to be there with him and stay through Tuesday. I'll be sure to let you know when we get the results.

I had a little bit of stamping time this afternoon and was able to finish up the August calendar page I was almost finished with and also got September done. Yippee! That makes me feel a little better. I'm actually caught up:) I have 29 Christmas cards done, so I have about 50 to go. Not too bad. I hope to be able to start doing some stamping again soon! Thanks for hanging in there with me.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Update On My Dad ...

Thanks to all of you for the prayers for my dad. I have a little update, but only to say that the surgery has been pushed back to maybe early next week. :( He just got back from Minneapolis this afternoon after having cataract surgery and then he had his pre-op appointment for his lymph node surgery late afternoon. But, the hospital called and said they didn't get the results from the pre-op in time and so they can't do the surgery tomorrow! That really stinks. My sister drove down to be with him and took time off of work and now it will be rescheduled. Bummer. I'll keep you posted. Thanks again.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

A Little This and That:)

I thought I'd just post a little something to let you all know I'm alive and well ... just still quite busy. When I have a little stamping time, which isn't often, I've been working on my calendars for next year. I'm making progress on them. About a week or so ago, I had only finished January, February and March. Now I have finished April, May, June, July and and almost finished with August. Yippee! :) I sure hope I can start making cards again soon.

Also, just a little prayer request. My dad has to have a couple lymph nodes removed from his neck and jaw on Thursday. They are "suspicious." If you are so inclined, would you please say a little prayer for him that it isn't cancer? We'd all sure appreciate it!

The rest of October is still very busy for us, and now November is about booked up, too! Amazing that we can have so much going on! Luckily, it's all good stuff.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

A Beautiful Thing - Part Three

The last card with the Stampin' Up! set called "A Beautiful Thing." I used two of the stamps to make the flowers and then I matted with black. The butterfly piece was cut with a Memory Box die when I was together with friends in June. The sentiment is from a Papertrey Ink set.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

A Beautiful Thing - Part Two

This card, along with tomorrow's card, completes my use of my first forty Stampin' Up! stamp sets. I will continue my project of using all of my SU sets, but I need to get my calendars and Christmas cards finished, so they will take priority. Yesterday, I finished up April 2015. Four months done - eight to go.

This card uses stamps from the SU set called "A Beautiful Thing." The sentiment, flowers and flower centers are all from this set. I inked up the sentiment with markers and stamped on ivory cardstock. I used the same pink marker on the flowers and then used a Summer Sun ink pad for the centers. I matted the sentiment and the flowers with green cardstock and mounted the flowers on foam squares. The embossed panel was done with a Sizzix embossing folder. (The first card with this set was the Christmas card from Friday, found here.)

A couple people asked about the tool I used to perforate the bookmark on this card. The one I used was from Stampin' Up! and included a little rotary cutter, rotary scorer, distressing tool and the rotary perforator. I don't have a current catalog, but I looked a little bit on-line and didn't see it in the book. The perforator is similar to this one on Amazon.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Antique Collectibles - Part Two

Here is the second card I made with the Stampin' Up! set called "Antique Collectibles." It was rather hard to photograph, but I hope you can get the idea. It looks great in person!

I stamped the five images from the set with Versamark on black cardstock and embossed with clear embossing powder. It makes a great background. I didn't want to cover it up! All I did was add a sheer black ribbon and a sentiment. The sentiment is from a Papertrey set. I stamped it with black ink and embossed with clear embossing powder. The cardbase and the sentiment panel are ivory and the sentiment is mounted on foam squares.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Antique Collectibles - Part One

I struggled with this set, but in the end I'm happy with the results. The set is called "Antique Collectibles." One more set and I get to move on to the next stack of ten:)

For this card, I decided to make a bookmark card. I've never done that before. On the front, I used decorative cardstock from Kanban, shimmery gold paper, and a gold-embossed sentiment from a Stampin' Up! set called "Birthday Greetings." The card base is ivory.

Here is the inside of the card with the bookmark section folded inward. I used a never-before-used tool from Stampin' Up! to perforate the card base so the bookmark can easily be removed and used. Again, I used cardstock from Kanban to decorate the bookmark. The heart image and the sentiment are from the Antique Collectibles set. They are both embossed with detail gold embossing powder.

And here is the inside with the bookmark folded outward. I embossed the sentiment with gold. It's from the Birthday Greetings set. I'll have to remember when I finally arrive at that set that I have already used two of the stamps!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

Red and White Christmas

Finally - a card continuing my mission to use all of my Stampin' Up! stamps. We have been busy every weekend for a long time and it doesn't seem to be letting up. The evenings are busy, too, and Wyatt seems to need more of my time during the day. All of that adds up to no stamping time. When I have had a few minutes, I just sat in my stamping room and didn't know where to start:( 

This card uses a stamp from the retired SU! set called "A Beautiful Thing." That stamp is the center of the "snowflake" - which is probably a doily. :) I think it may have been cut with a Lifestyle Crafts die, but I'm not sure about that at all. The die belongs to a friend. I mounted the snowflake on foam squares. I embossed the background with a Lifestyle Crafts embossing folder. The red matting sentiment was cut with an Impression Obsession die.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!

October Calendar Page

A little late, but better late than never. At least I still remembered on the First of the month:) At any rate, here is my calendar page for October.

The pumpkin with vines stamp is from Inkadinkado. I paper-pieced the pumpkin. I colored the flowers with a Stampin' Up! marker. The sentiment is from a dollar Studio G set.

If you are interested in printing out calendars to make, you can find a link to my file under my blog header. I'd love to hear how they work for you!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!