Cards Made for a Birthday Gift

Hi there everyone, hope all is well with you and your family. So, in this post I am showing you some cards I made for a friend for her Birthday to send to Senior Citizens. She always liked my cards I made, so I thought why not make her a bunch of cards to send to others.

The above card is a die, I glued on white cardstock and colored in with different colors, mostly alcohol inks. The card looked a little plain, so I decided to emboss the card with clear embossing powder. I then embossed it a second time and it was so much smoother looking. Had a lot of fun doing these cards.

These two cards are my butterfly cards, both butterflies were embossed twice, with clear embossing powders. Same for the "smile". Simple little cards placed on backgrounds. The poka-dot background is a foiled background.

Now this "thinking of you" card, the flowers and birds were done years ago and I finally turned it into a card using some sticky background that was sitting around in my stash for years. Sort of fun to use up stuff that has been sitting around for years, turns into quite the challenge.

These two sets of cards, again they were sticky back, a metal type material which I ran through the cuttlebug. With just a simple "Thinking of You" tag place on the front.

Again, another card using a die and colored in with copic markers. The "Happy Birthday Blessings" was also dies and embossed twice with clear embossing powders.

In this picture is the birthday card to Mary, it is a flower I found at the Dollar Tree, made 6 cards with these flowers, think I will pick up some more of these flowers, makes for a quick card.

Last night another friend said he wanted me to make him a bunch of "Thinking of You" cards. He said he would send me the money and whatever number of cards he could get for the amount he sent would be good. He wants the inside of the cards to have scripture, (yes, I can do that). He wants the cards to have nice sceneries on the front, like farms and rolling hills, (yes, if I have the stamps to do that). He wants cards with pianos and pipe organs on the front with musical notes, (I think I could do that). Well, I have quite the order, will see what I can do. FIRST and foremost, I need to see the money!!!

I got involved with a Senior Center and go for card making classes for free every Tuesday.....I am really liking this class. Yesterday the other teacher was showing us how to use the Cricut (the older version, which I have). Wow, I learned a lot and now I have brought the Cricut from downstairs upstairs, and it is sitting on the dining room table. I have NO excuses, to NOT play with my Cricut now!!!!

One of the cartridges has a piano on it....there you go Bob, I have some old song books from church, I will cut out a page, glue it on cardstock and place the piano on top of it with a "Thinking of You" tag. There, a couple of those cards in his portfolio already.

Let's see, what else is on the agenda, I guess do some gardening, the grass is really growing, it already has been cut and needs another cutting. I am going to buy a tomato plant and cucumber plant and put them in the front of the house....they will get lots of sun all day!!! My backyard is in all shade because of the big tree behind the house. 

Well time to close this blog, bet you thought I was going to retire from blogging, guess as long as I am making cards, I shall always show you what I am up to. You all take care and take Jesus!!! Blessings ~ Louise
 

Cards, Hospice Meeting, Mother's Day and Pops

Hi there everyone. Hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day yesterday. Mine started out fine, I was blessed with a friend that gave me a personal Cricut for $30 with case and 4 cartridges and maybe even the cartridge that came with the cricut. With this cricut I will be able to use it without my computer, which will be nice. No pictures yet....I need to set it up and figure out how to use it as well.

In these next few pictures are some of the cards I made for Hospice. The cards above are the funny Tim Holtz Crazy Bird set. I got the die cuts for these birds....maybe I will use them more. No more fussy cutting for me. This yellow bird is probably my favorite of the six birds...easy to color too.

My vintage golfer about to hit a golf ball. I made these cards into Father's Day cards as were the yellow chick cards above.

These cards were what I made up for my secret stamper lady....I sent the stamped pineapple, rose and leaves. Colored them in and added a gem. Added a feather and circled die cut and embossed folder for the background. I inherited 2 rimes of yellow card stock and 1 rime of yellow paper....so yeah, you probably will see lots of yellow cards coming out of my creating mind.

In the above picture are the Father's Day favors I made. At the meeting we slipped Hersey candies in the favor. Usually we put little stickers on them saying they are from Hospice....but I guess the stickers were not made up as yet. I thought I had taken a picture of ALL the favors together, that were made up, but for some reason there was no picture.....gosh, maybe I did not press the button to take the picture??????

In this picture we are looking through the cards each one of us brought.....maybe getting new ideas from each other and oo-ing and ah-ing the cards as we looked. Next meeting will be June 2nd, so we have 3 weeks to get some cards together.....I better get my rear in gear....then we will have the summer off till September and we need to have Halloween cards made......yikes!!! I think that is why my days fly bye.....I am always on to the next holiday before this one even comes.

I did not finish my Mother's Day blessings. After the Hospice meeting, I drove Betty home, but before we went to her house, we stopped off at a second hand shop and I bought myself a purse and a couple of tops.....oh and a cute little teapot which I mishandled and dropped on the ground and it broke. I will glue it back together and just use it for decoration....maybe it won't be usable again. (that part was NOT a blessing)

We went to Woodman's, a really big store that I very seldom go to. BUT...I probably will go there again, I found my favorite bread there. A big loaf of Turano Bread that makes the best grilled cheese sandwiches...oh yum!! Oh and I just saw a recipe using this bread to make (French) Italian toast......trying this tomorrow morning.

I bought a few other things, that I don't see at the other stores I visit...I always have fun shopping!!! I was really enjoying my Mother's Day weekend and thinking, gosh....what did I do to enjoy all these blessings?????

Then Saturday came.....the phone rang. A call from a lady that has been in contact with my step-father in Las Vegas. He died in his sleep, in his own apartment on his easy chair. That's the way he wanted it and he got it. I won't be going out there....no reason to. He had made plans with this lady that she would take care of everything....she sort of adopted him and my mother and became their daughter. Taking my place.....oh well, I never did have good feelings about this whole situation. But who am I......nobody!!!!

Can you sense some anger there??? Yes, there probably is, when I think back on all the things that Pops did to me, the things he said to me, the way he controlled me and made me angry, to the point that I would only stuff the pain and say "he will never hurt me again" only to be hurt again and again. Nope, I am not sad for him, nor do I really care.

He wanted me to call him "Dad" one thing he wanted to hear me say....I said you are NOT MY DAD and I will never call you DAD!!! I had one Dad....You are Pops and that is what I will call you. He said, I figured you would say that and chuckled. ERG....he made me so mad!!!! And when he said he loved me, I was always forced to say....I love you too....but did I mean it??? I am not sure.

So here we are today....I hope he is happy where ever he ended up. The lady is going to take his ashes and spread them in the mountains of Las Vegas along with the ashes of my mother.....hope they meet again, where ever that might be.

Sunday came and we went to church...good service and lovely worship....our gift on Mother's day, two little red petunia plants....I shall plant them tonight in between the rain drops. I think I will get some white and blue petunia's and organize the petunia's in red, white and blue in the planters.

Well, time to close here and go walk Kylie....the sun is out now after a little rain. Talk to you later and keep looking up better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise

A Busy Saturday and Easter Cards

Hi everyone. How was your day today??? We had a pretty busy day for a Saturday. We picked up our finished income tax.....yay! Uncle Sam is giving some of our money back. One of the things I invested was a new computer, so some of that money will go towards it. Microsoft decided they no longer want to support Windows XP. So on April 8th "D-day" will come for those still using XP's. Kim Komando, a computer guru on the radio, said, those still on XP stand the chance of getting hacked and/or getting virus's. I took my XP off line last week, and will use it downstairs with my Cricut. Kim also says that 1/3 of the people in the world are still on XP, it's worked well for 12 years and has been a popular program, oh well, I guess that is progress for ya.

We also mailed a package off to CA to a man who ordered some CDs and tapes from JP. Then JP took off for church to clean it and then practice his accordion for the service tomorrow. Leaving me to my computer for awhile. I decided to take a short nap before JP got home. Then we were off to a thrift store, the pawn shop and Walmart. When we got home I took Kylie for a short walk then it was time to make dinner. Roasted vegies, hamburgers and baked potato. Yep a busy day....right now I have a pie in the oven if you go to Patty's blog, she talks about her "plop pie" it sounded so good, I needed to try it. http://atticfullofclutter.blogspot.com

Thought I would post a few Easter Cards that I have in my Etsy store. I made this card last Easter, had a few left and decided to make a set of 4 cards for $8.50+postage. The inside of this card is calligraphy with He Lives.

I made this card a couple of years ago....the inside verse says "Happy Easter"

This card was made this year, I got the idea for this card on one of the Etsy stores....was rather fun to make....need to make some more to give to a few friends. The inside of this card is blank, but I most likely will add "Happy Easter".

This card and the purple one were from a couple of years ago, if it does not sell this year, I probably will add it to the Hospice cards next year.

This is a newer card, using the same cuttlebug folder but not cutting it out like the blue and brown cross was. Inside says "Happy Easter"

Oh....I forgot to say I bought a few tea cups and saucers and an elephant creamer. I think I will try selling them in my Etsy store. Going to try something different. I figured with the store name Cards4ubyLouise and other Treasures....other Treasures could also include some vintage things...I do have some books listed and photo's I have taken.....so we shall see how that goes.

Just a reminder...I am celebrating going on 7 years doing this blog. I will be doing a gift give-away....a set of cards and an extra surprise!!! So if you would like to be a part of the give away, just leave a comment and become a follower if you aren't already.

You have a great weekend and keep looking up....I need to go check out the pie....hopefully it did not burn...hahahaha. Cheers ~ Louise

Note: The pie turned out perfectly golden brown....now to taste it when it cools down a bit.

Computers....uge!!!

Hi everyone. Hope your weekend went well. Mine did, thank you. Saturday I went to Office Depot and bought a new computer. Well, because Microsoft XP is phasing out April 8th and will no longer be supported and updated by Microsoft. I have been getting little messages from Microsoft and my computer has been running REAL slow. I can go get a cup of coffee and come back and this old computer is still thinking and thinking and thinking some more....oiu, more time is wasted just waiting....a true test of my patience.

This is what my computer looks like....it's not a touch-screen computer...that is okay, I know everything else is....but just the fact that I am going from an XP to 8.1 is going to be challenge enough for this old lady...don'cha think????

So.......if you don't see me here for awhile it's because I am off-line for a short time....I hope. My old computer will go down stairs, it will be closer to my stamping stuff and the Cricut, probably will have to get a printer for downstairs too....which will probably work much better for me. I had to buy a new mouse as the old one konked out....what terrible timing....huh!?!

Yes......this will be me after a couple of days....I am sure of it. So keep me in your prayers if you think about it. I hope to be back by the end of the week as I really need to see what is happening on Etsy. I have had a couple of sales, so I don't want to miss anything because I am off-line....again what terrible timing. Hopefully this will be a blessing in disquise in some way.

Well, I better close for now...you all take care and keep looking up. God is just so full of blessings, they are sometimes hard to contain!!!! Cheers ~ Louise

New Creations and the Elections

My newest addition to my creations. A frosted etched glass dish. Picked this dish up along with 8 other dishes at a rummage sale. My first thought was to break the dishes and turn them into stepping stones. (I still may do that with a few dishes next summer) For now, they will be.....maybe....large candle holders or a serving dish for _______, fill in the blank. The snowflake was made with my Cricut cutter, cut the snowflake on vinyl then put it on the plate. This particular dish had 3 coats of etching goop applied to it. It was a lot of fun to make and most likely will make a few more.

My second creation is this cute little candle holder with snowflakes on all four sides. The snowflake is from a die-cut which was run through my cuttlebug. The etching goop was applied and left on for 15 minutes then washed off with cold water. I have 3 more to make and probably will put one in my Etsy shop in the next few days. Will also make a few for Christmas gifts. Will have to sell the candle holder for at least $10, as the light and candle holder alone were priced at $4.50. Have not found a place cheaper as yet, but will be looking around.

Also on my agenda is putting together a scrapbook for JP's Christmas present. 40 years ago, when JP was still in stock-cars and racing, I put together 2 scrapbooks in 1972 and 1973. Those books are falling apart now, so I thought it would be fun to put one together. I am hoping to get at least 3-4 pages done (maybe more) before Christmas.......as I get them done I will post them here. Bought this big blue photo album and extra pages for the smaller pictures and actually found some racing stickers and 12x12 racing paper. Should be fun. So far I have about $40 into this project. Hope JP likes the album and doesn't ask me "how much did it cost?"

Still working on my Christmas cards, better get going on them SOON, cause Christmas is right around the corner and I have at least 25-30 personal cards to make and also put some into my Etsy shop. As you can see I am just a little busy, craft wise. There is always something cooking on the stove in my home.....hahahahahaha!

Well, the elections are FINALLY over. I think I am "politics saturated" and ready for some R & R (rest and recuperation) from politics, although I still like listening to Rush Limbough, Sean Hannity and Mark Levine. I had hoped that Mitt Romney would have gotten elected but that was not the will of God...........He is in control of everything and that includes these elections. I don't really understand what it is we are to learn from this, but whatever it is...."All things work together for those that love God and are called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28

Well you all have a great day and keep looking up for your redemption is drawing nigh......getting closer everyday♥
Cheers ~ Louise

A Happy Birthday Card!

A Happy Birthday Card for Evan. It's his big #3!!! I thought long and hard on this one, wanting to use his name and the #3. This actually is a second card, tore the 1st card up, redoing it completely. Evan was on the front of the card with "Happy" across the front. The inside with "Birthday" at the top and #3 and the animals on either side.........just did not make sense to me and only after someone mentioned it did not flow............so took it apart and redid it. This flows now....."Happy Birthday Evan #3"

The banners were just cut out and each one colored with Copic markers and stamped with the letters and a star colored in with a sparkle gel pen. I added the arrows for fill-in.

I have had these black letters for a long time and thought I should put them to use. Cut the #3 out and added the stars and arrows and animals.........I think it made for a nice card to a little boy! Jackie and Callie are having babies this year so I shall have to put my thinking cap on for more cards with numbers and names. I now have a Cricuit so making birthday cards should be quite fun!!!

Will be putting a new card up in the next few days, was working on it last night, don't want to tell you what it is yet, for it is a surprise, it could be a card for Evan or one of those new little babies.

You all have a great day and keep looking up for your redemption draweth nigh.

Cheers ~ Louise

Ground Hog Day and a "Thanks" Card!!!!!!!

Yep.....it's that day of the year that we find out if we have 6 more weeks of WINTER!!! Personally, I am not really caring.......if the groundhog sees his shadow or not. Guess it depends on which groundhog you are talking too.....hahahah......and which one saw his shadow, the one in Wisconsin or the one in PA, Ohio, Ill or Mich. (Note: just on the news....a couple of them did not see their shadow, does that mean an early spring????? whatever). So many people seem to think they know how to predict the future in some way or another......hummmmmm.....me thinks no one knows the future except God!!!! For isn't His ways higher then our ways and His thoughts higher then ours??????? "If God says", I will tend to listen to what HE says and not man or groundhogs.....so there!!!! I have no pictures of a groundhog.....they aren't that pretty or cute like my puppy dogs..........soooooo this may just be a picture less blog for today. Who knows maybe I will come up with something as I write.

Some bad news yesterday.....we had to get rid of our second car, had too many things wrong with it, needed brakes, new fuel lines, rusty lines, tyrods, etc. would cost more to get it fixed then what it is worth....junk yard paid us $400....that was good. Paid part of our bill at Van Linn's, the rest will go towards another "old car" and more bills till that one wears out and becomes "undriveable".
Here's a picture of a card I made with my new Cricut machine, (used this picture in a previous blog) I really like my Cricut, it's fun to play with. It is a gift from a friend. Bought some new mats on Etsy, ordered them on the 28th of January and they arrived yesterday......gosh that was fast delivery. Have an idea for a St. Patrick card, "Kiss me I'm Irish" card. Really need to get some more cards in my Etsy store for St. Pats......sort of lagging behind. But I did notice that last year, this time I sold some St. Pat's cards, 4 of them, starting the 21st of February.......soooo, guess I have a little bit of time to get some cards made and up in my Etsy store. Take a peek, go to http://www.cards4ubylouise.etsy.com/

Hope you all are having a great day with better days ahead and keep looking up for your redemption draweth nigh!!!
Cheers ~ Louise