More fabulous cards that I received

 The above card is the birthday card that Cherie made for me...

 And this is the birthday card that Kathi made for me...

 What a great time I had last evening.  My two weekly crafting buddies, Cherie and Kathi...came to my home and brought me the two lovely cards that they made.

Back in September when it was Cherie's birthday, we went out to a restaurant together.  One that I suggested.  I honestly thought that it was called Squirrel something (where was my head?)  (or should I say my brain?)  They haven't let me hear  the end of this since then.  smile.

This is the link where I first posted the story about this fun day.

http://ribbonchallenged.blogspot.com/2014/09/to-everything-there-is-season.html

Thus, if you look carefully at the above the cards...you will see that both cards have squirrels on them.  Also since they said I am obsessed with making side step cards....(me obsessed!!!!   I've only made 21 of those side step cards! )  For that reason...They said that they knew it had to be side step cards!

I will definitely treasure these cards...  This is also one of the reasons I like card making so much.

You can so personalize the cards...Favorite color, favorite memories, etc.

Hubby took me to my favorite restaurant to eat last night.  My meal was so good, and Yes, I had

dessert.  A piece of cake.  You have to cake on your birthday, right?  

 The restaurant had so many pretty flowering trees and flowers.  It was a lovely evening weather wise too.

I love this view from the restaurant...They are planning a major remodel of this place, and I hope they don't change the windows.

After we came back from the restaurant my daughter and grandchildren came to visit.
And brought me a gift...a Fitbit!
Does anyone reading this right now, have a Fitbit?

I think it's a great gift and idea...but not sure if I will be able to use it or not.
(I'm already having problems with it!)  (not the fitbit...it's me!

Thank you for visiting my blog today,
Blessings,
Jill

Beautiful day today...

It's a beautiful day today,  The sun is out...I have some windows open...
And I found these lovely cards in my mailbox.

The first card I found in my mailbox was this beautiful twisted easel card...
Made in my favorite color combo for cards...

 That lovely card came with this beautiful gift...which came all the way from England!
Em, I love them both!
Em's blog with her beautiful cards can be found here

http://www.creative-em.com/

 I took a quick peek at Carol's blog before I started my post, and I see that she posted today the card I posted below.  Carol, You took a much better pic of this card than I did...
You can see it on Carol's blog here...

http://ourlittleinspirations.blogspot.com/

Carol, also knows that my favorite color is PINK!  smile...  she also answered one of the questions I was wondering about when I saw her card.   I was wondering how she made those delicate stems on her card...and they are cut from card stock.    They are done so perfectly, and I thought maybe it was from drawing them somehow...but it couldn't have been easy cut out from card stock either.

 The card below was made by Sue from Split Coast Stampers...Sue does not have a blog,
but she has a fabulous gallery at Split Coast stampers...and here is the link to her gallery.

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/showgallery.php?ppuser=113778&cat=500

Sue that card is so cute, and may look a LITTLE bit like me...Only I'm a bit older...

and NO LONGER that thin (I used to be...smile)

 And the card below was made by another one of my friends named Carol.  Carol does not have a blog nor does she have a computer!  (Oh, how I wish she did!)  but she is now making cards!  
Which, obviously, makes me very happy.  The card below is only the second card that she made.
Carol, and I have been friends since we have been teenagers!  Whoops!  That may not be correct!
I always thought that I had met, Carol, for the first time when we both did our first job.  I thought that we met at 17!  Just recently, Carol, corrected me!  She came to my house to visit me, bringing me a pic of us when we were both in the same girl scout group.  (When we were about 11 or 12 years old!)
What a surprise that was...I didn't even realize that we were in the same troop.  Obviously, my friend realized that fact!

Thank you for visiting my blog today,
Blessings,
Jill

Twisted Sister Lighthouse Challenge and Word Art Wednesday #180

I made the above card for two challenges.  The twisted Sister Challenge at Split Coast Stampers where Lesley issued this week's challenge to have a lighthouse on our card. 

The light house on my card was colored with copics by my hubby
And he did his best to come close to the colors of the actual lighthouse...

The light house is located at Cape Hatteras North Carolina...
Here is a link to that lighthouse 

http://www.outerbanks.com/cape-hatteras-lighthouse.html

Jim and I were very briefly in North Carolina...but never had the privilege of seeing this light house in real life...It would be nice to do that someday...well, at least I can dream about it...smile.

The image Jim colored had Stampendous stamp written on the back and it was colored many years ago, so I hope that I have that correctly that is their stamp...

My sentiment was stamped with a stamp from Our Daily Bread Designs...

The card is a Twisted Easel fold.

The link to the Word Art Wednesday challenge can be found here

http://wordartwednesday.blogspot.com/2015/04/challenge-180-anything-goesfamily.html

Thank you for visiting my blog today,

Blessings,

Jill

Lilac time

My last post was posting my tulip card because I found a tulip growing in my garden...

Today, my lilac bush is blooming...so I thought it was time to make a card with a lilac image
that my hubby colored for me with copics.

My image is a House Mouse image from Stampabilities  (Fragrant Shower HMTR1052)
I only added a small die cut in the corner and a stick on bead.

"Spring comes:  The flowers learn their colored shapes."  ~Maria Kanopnicka

Thank you for visiting my blog today,
Blessings,
Jill

It's tulip time!

This card was done using  an image colored with copics by my hubby

I don't know where this image came from because it is one that he colored many years ago.

I still have a book full of images that he has already colored 200+ images.  I don't think that I will ever catch up...but fortunately for me, he now has his own blog, so he is also trying to make cards out of some of those images along with me.

I used some Graphic 45 designer papers for the background and I finished the inside of my card stamping a sentiment from Hero Arts.

I usually don't finish the inside of my cards right away.  I wait until I decide who the card is for,
and what occasion the card is being used for...then I finish the inside of my card.

But Jaycee  has so inspired me to start finishing up the inside of my cards too.   Of course, my cards, are not as beautifully done as hers are.  The inside of her cards are as pretty as the outside.  Jaycee, thanks for the inspiration.

"Life isn't a tiptoe through the tulips."   Shannon Hoon

Before posting this card,  I took a quick walk around our small yard to see what flowers were in bloom,  We have a few hyacinths, daffodils, and ONE YELLOW tulip!  Those flowers really speak spring to me!  

Hope you are having a good week...
And thank you for visiting my blog today,
Blessings,
Jill

Serendipity, and Word Art Challenges...

I made this card for two challenges...This Month's Serendipity Challenge which can be found here...

http://serendipitystampschallengeblog.blogspot.com/2015/04/sscb42-monograms-verse.html

This month's challenge is to use at least one Serendipity stamp...with the challenge theme which is Monograms & verse.  I know that I used this same stamp in last month's challenge but it's the only Serendipity verse stamp I have (so far)

And for this week's word Art Wednesday...the link to the challenge can be found here...

http://wordartwednesday.blogspot.com/2015/04/challenge-179-anything-goes-family.html

I made my card using a verse stamp from Serendipity which happens to be my favorite scripture verse.  I stamped my image with versamark and heat embossed with black embossing powder.

I cut out my background with a die from Tessler crafts...Ellentina Cutting die  DCB003.  And Spellbinder Big Scalloped Squares Large die.  I dry embossed the die cut with a cuttlebug folder

(Textile)  and added brads and a stick on flower from K & C company.

"April hath put a spirit of youth in everything."  

William Shakespeare

Thank you for visiting my blog,

Blessings,

Jill

Merry Monday #153

 I made this card for this week's Merry Monday Challenge #153.

To use an Angel on your card

The challenge can be found here...


http://merrymondaychristmaschallenge.blogspot.com/2015/04/merry-monday-153-angelscherubs.html

 The stamp that I used is an OLD stamp that I purchased many years ago.  The stamp is from
Rubber Stampede.  It's a large stamp and a busy stamp, so I kept my card kind of plain.
I heat embossed my image with embossing powder, and my sentiment is from Sweet 'n Sassy stamps.
(It's also the only Angel stamp that I have...)

Below is something that just arrived in the mail.  Hubby purchased this for me as an early birthday present.  I have not used it yet....but I can't wait to give it a try...  Before I use it I want to go on some of the utube tutorials for using a Misti.

Thank you for the Christmas Challenges.  It helps me to keep at it through the year so I don't feel so panicky when Christmas comes around and my cards are not anywhere finished.  smile

Hope everyone is having a good day..
Blessings,
Jill

Tuesday Card Making...

 I was trying to clean out my craft room  (a lost cause)  smile. 

 Because, I clean it and then just mess it up again.  

In the process of trying to do that...I found several cards that I had started but never finished.  So at least I managed to make unfinished cards into finished cards.

The above card was stamped in white versamark and then I water colored the image with my Stampin' Up aqua painter and Tim Holtz distress inks, added some glitter in the center, and a ribbon

 The above card is one I had tried making a while back but the card fell apart, and I never fixed it.  I didn't want to throw away the ballerina doll so I decided to try and remake her on a different background.    Don't know who makes the stamp  but the stamp reads 2003  (yes it has been around for a while...smile.  I didn't even start stamping until about 2007.  So the stamp itself probably sat for a while before I even tried to use it).

 Yes more side step cards...Images again are from Paperwishes.com
I used the tutorial from Spilt Coast Stampers

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/sidestepcard/

I recently had made one similar to this one with a different sentiment and different die cuts.
I like how the colors had turned out so I had to try another one.



"The secret to contentment is knowing how to enjoy what we have."

Thank you for visiting my blog today,
Blessings,
Jill

Light It Up for Autism Awareness

Click on photos to enlarge

When I woke up this morning, I said to myself.  "Jill", Your are NOT going to make any cards today!

You have company coming this evening ( My crafting buddies)  You have company coming this weekend.  So you need to clean!

  (By the way, I talk to myself a lot)  (I was raised as an only child so who else did I have to talk to? )  I read somewhere that children who are raised as an only child DO talk more to themselves.  I do have several step-brothers step-sister, half sisters, half brother...but NOT raised with any of them...and of course, that's another story.  My hubby always tells me I should write a book on that...because sometimes it takes that long to explain my family background...enough of that...I'm rambling again, sorry.

I then went on Darnell's blog which can be found here...

http://www.djkardkreations.com/2015/04/light-it-up-for-autism-awareness-blog.html

Where I read about the Autism Awareness Blog hop...  (So much for cleaning!)

Here is the link where you can read about the blog hop and all that is involved...

http://jazzypaper.blogspot.com/

There is some wonderful sponsors for this blog hop.  But I, honestly, would have joined even without knowing that there were prizes.  I wanted to be part of this...The blog hop is for a wonderful cause.

"Where there is great love, There are always miracles."

Willa Cather

Thank you for visiting my blog today.

Blessings,

Jill