Well, Hello June!!!

Hi there everyone!! Yes, I know, been awhile since I last communicated on this blog. Just been a lot of this and that going on. Doctor appointments, changing meds and checking blood pressure. Don't know what is worse, changing meds and stopping a few others which changes and discombobulates my whole body....now I am dealing with swollen ankles because the diuretic was discontinued, uncomfortable to say the least!!! Oh well, not a happy camper right now. Next Doctor appointment is the 18th.

Yeah, signs of old age, I guess. Would rather stay at home then go out and mingle with people and drive around with maniacs on the road who speed around me, because I am going the speed limit!!!!

Next Hospice meeting we will meet in September. So, we have the summer off, no rush making cards and I can work outside. I have lots to do and have had a bit of help with the neighbors. Will have to take some before/after pictures of their work and mine.

Here are the cards I created for Hospice. The meeting took place yesterday, and now I'm taking a break from everything, essentially doing NOTHING!!! The cards showcased are foiling cards. I purchased some new red foil and lace toner cards. The flower design was crafted using two different punches at the Thompson Center.

Once again, we see foiled cards, two birthday cakes, and birthday wishes set against various backgrounds.

Creating these cards was enjoyable with the use of 3D embossing folders and vellum, followed by processing them through the Cuttlebug. You apply color to the bottom side (the indented side), for which I used Copic markers. Once fully colored to your liking, you then sweep black ink over the colored bottom side, from top to bottom, achieving the coverage you desire. Afterwards, you can adhere it to the card and affix your chosen verses.

It's fascinating to see the evolution of this blog. The initial two paragraphs remain untouched, penned by my own hand. The subsequent three paragraphs, along with this one, were crafted by "copilot." While the words were altered, the essence remained intact, and arguably enhanced. It's curious to observe the outcome of this paragraph. AI is becoming increasingly ubiquitous. Initially, its presence on this blog eluded me, but upon engaging with it, I found the articulation to be superior to my own... hence, I'm inclined to let AI articulate on my behalf...haha!

What fun, the above paragraph cracks me up, makes me sound very intelligent to say the least!!! This is me speaking....lol!!!

Question: Shall we let AI speak for us now!!!!

Well, I think I shall leave you now with this question to ponder. Talk to you later, maybe I will try for another blog this month just for the fact of having another round with AI and letting it rewrite my paragraphs. Hope you have a great June, don't let the bugs bite you too badly. Cheers ~ Louise

April is Flying By

 That is for sure!!!! Hi there, everyone, how you all doing? Been awhile since I have been here, quite a few things have been happening and blogging never entered the mind of Louise!!!

This cool card was made at the Thompson Center. The technique is called "Sunburst" it is all in how you cut the strips of paper using a 6x6 pad of patterned paper. So fun.

Well, I have to go and get ready for card making at the Thompson Center today, I shall come back later to finish this blog.

Back again, 2 days later and a few more cards to show. This next card, the horse, was a stamp donated to Thompson Center. Sure glad I found it when I did and stamped a bunch of horses, cause now the stamp has disappeared...oh well, guess that happens.

Anyways, my great-niece likes horses and jumps them. So, for her birthdays I like to give her "horse birthday cards". Her brother is into guitars and drums, so that is what I look for, for him. My other great-nephew and niece, he is into hockey and fishing and the niece likes gymnastics and cheerleading. So, the hunt is to find stamps that represent what their likes are. I do love this horse though, so pretty.

This was a fun card to make, it is just strips of paper encircling a square, simple and easy. Made this card a couple of weeks ago.

The next two cards were made at Thompson Center on Tuesday. A "sunburst card" Fun way to make thank you cards, need to make a few more of these for a couple of people that have helped me with  projects around the house.

I love this card, probably it's the paper I like, again it's the sunburst card.

Well, my Chicago Blackhawks did not make the play-offs, nope, not this year or even next year probably. They are in a rebuild with lots of young players coming up the pipe-line and the older players getting treaded off to other teams. Will be sad to see them go, but at least they will have a chance to join a team that is chasing the Stanley Cup. Now we have to wait till August/September before the games start up again.

A neighbor has been helping me get the front yard cleaned up, had weeds growing all over the place, he cut them down, laid plastic down and then mulch. Planted a rose bush at one end and moved a big pot with dirt in the middle of the planter and put flowers in it. What a difference it made. He is going to work up the other side of the yard this weekend maybe. I bought a new peonie stand to keep from letting the peonies lean on the ground. Have to get out there today to set the stand up before the peonies get too big.

Since Jay's passing, exactly 2 years and 9 months today, there is just some stuff, I can't do alone anymore. John on the other side of the house, cuts my grass and shovels the snow. It was a mild winter this winter, but who knows what next winter will be like. Guess I will have to do what I can and hope for the best.

Well, I guess it is time to close this blog for today. You all have a great rest of April and keep looking up, better days are coming.

Cheers ~ Louise

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!!

Hi there everyone, how are you doing this month??? Oh, my how the days are flying by. Yesterday I wrote a check for February 22.....how did this month fly by so fast????

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you all. Here are a few cards from the last couple of years. The one above is an old card I made at a card making class.....not sure I have this card anymore, but at least I have a picture of it.

Now this card I still have or at least a copy of the card that I can run off on the printer and color them in. Cute frog hiding in the britches. 

More old cards that I don't have any more but still have the pictures. 

I could make more of these cards because I have a copy of him that I can run off on the printer.

I always liked this die and can make more of these cards anytime, they turned out nice for St Patrick's Day!!!! I have a few more cards in the making but have not taken pictures of them so I can post them on this blog.

Hospice meeting is on March 1st. So, I have 7 days to get some cards put together, guess I am running behind at this point. Think I will have a few more St. Patrick cards, some Easter cards, Birthday cards and Thinking of you.

I feel so behind in everything right now, things I should get done, just sit and don't get done. The dishes can sit in the sink for days and I just keep adding to the heap, then finally I get tired of looking at them and finally do them in phases. After I get done with these dishes and cards, need to sit down and do the taxes for 2023....not one of my favorite jobs. 

Well, that is about it for this blog, not much going on here, just trying to live life and get through each day and the only thing that keeps me going is my faith in Jesus Christ. Been reading Acts a little at a time. Have you ever heard the saying, "Read the book of Acts and get ready?" Yeah, get ready for the second return of Jesus, he is coming again and soon and I can hardly wait!!!! We will be reunited with Jesus and our loved ones...gonna be a great day!!!!

Talk to you all later, maybe something exciting will happen like Spring is just around the corner. Keep looking up, better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise

Hospice Cards for May 5th

Hi there everyone, how you all doing??? I've been busy with life, guess that is why you have not been seeing me on this blog, sorry about that. I do keep busy though, it's been a long hard winter and not going anywhere. Life changes quite a bit when one becomes a "widow" it's not the happiest place to be in the world. I guess you make your own happiness and I have not figured out how to do that as yet.

These two cards, I apparently colored these turtles a couple of years ago, ran across them and thought, let's make some cards for Hospice with this girl. Yeah, so the background is an embossing folder that I inked and ran through the cuttlebug. I covered the corners with black cardstock because I accidently ripped one corner while cutting it, so to camouflaged it, I covered it.

This card was run through the cuttlebug with a 3D folder on black cardstock. Then I covered with it gold paste with my finger. The white star like pattern is what is called Spirilla (thread art) and a gold dot for the middle. I need to add a Happy Birthday or Happy Father's Day at the top yet.

This card is just sticky back shiny paper. I added a flower that I embossed with 3 coats of embossing powders, gave it a real glossy look, kind of hard to tell in this picture. Again, I need to add a Birthday, Thinking of You or Happy Fathers Day greeting on it.

This card was fun. The black background was run through the cuttlebug (flowers). I used 4 different size circles of different colors, glued them together then cut them in half. Then you place the half circles on the card and it looks like swirlies, kind of a cool look.

This card, the embossing folder was inked and run through the cuttlebug. I added butterflies where the folder showed butterflies, simple birthday blessings.

This flower, along with 3 other flowers, apparently, I colored a couple of years ago and again ran across them and thought they needed to be used for a Hospice card. I think I used pearl-x powders but not to for sure.

Now this card was run through the cuttlebug with a tin looking paper that I had for YEARS stashed away and pulled out.....lets use this for a card, then it sat on the counter for a month or so, turned out really neat, wish I had some more of this stuff. The "Thanks" was stashed away and I added it to the card...guess I am just using stuff that's been laying around for years. Never know when stuff comes in handy.

Here again, these giraffes were done years ago and I just added them to these cards that I had foiled and ran through the laminator.

So, there you have it a bunch of cards I have made for Hospice this month. I should have between 60-75 cards when finished. I still have tomorrow to work on them. The meeting is Friday at 9am. We pass the cards around to each other so we can see what the other card makers made and get ideas for the next meeting which will be June 2nd. We sit around and gab and this month we will be putting together Father's Day favors and we put a Hershey's candy in each favor. We are usually done about 11pm

I suspect this month will go by pretty fast, most months fly by in a twinkling of an eye almost. A friend said, she closes her eyes Monday night and it's Friday morning already!!! That's how fast time flies for her!!!

Well, it you are still with me, I hope you enjoyed my review of some of my cards, the creative juices are running finally. You have a great month and hopefully I will be back again with some more cards. Take care and keep looking up, better days are coming. Blessings ~ Louise

Here We Are....Two Weeks Into September!!!

Hi there everyone. What can I say.....I guess my blogging has been lacking lately. Not much happening, but then, a lot has in small ways. Least we are not facing hurricanes and typhoons and fires. Here, it's lots of rain, heat and lots of mosquito's that seem to find me no matter where I am. That's one good thing about winter, NO MOSQUITO'S!!!!

So JP lost some hours at work, which means finances have been a little tricky of late. I had to sell some old gold and silver jewelry  left by my grandmothers, mother and myself. Total income this time around was $315 which will go partially towards paying the rest of our house taxes. Then, we start all over again next January 31st 2019.

My doggie, Kylie has not been feeling well lately. I am so afraid that I will have to have her put down. I don't want to....God, could she just die in her sleep???? Not sure what is wrong...she is going on 14 years...hope it is old age. Now why, do we put dogs down and not people??? I asked my Vet that question, she said, because we care more for our animals then we do people!!!

Next Saturday, we are having company from Chicago. JP's brother and SIL...they usually take us out to eat, we visit a bit and then they leave late afternoon, so they are home for the evening....it's a "Kwik Trip" like the gas station. If you live in this area, you would know what I mean. We probably won't go out to eat though and just may order out and have it delivered to our front door. I am going to order a Pumpkin Cream Pie from Schwan's, which looks delicious....I always have the dessert.

Some good news, poundage wise, I have lost 30 lbs since last July 2017. Losing has been a very long and slow process....still have much to lose. My blood sugars have been much, much better. Hopefully I can eliminate the pills after a 50 -75 lb. loss. I am still doing the Atkins/keto diet which has proven to work the best for me. I have to admit though, I don't make it a religious thing, as there are some days I eat potato chips and popcorn, oh, and tater tots too. But pretty much stay close to eating the right things.

Well, I guess that is about all that is going on this month....and there is still 2 weeks left to go. So I thought I better put some cards up, as this is a "Card Blog" so following are some cards I made at Betty's last month....just a little slow in posting. Our next meeting will be this next Wednesday already....time flies when we are having fun???? Card making on my own has been at a minimal....as I have not been in much of a mood....need some inspiration, that's why I like to go to Betty's....there is always something that gets my juices flowing.

So this was a fun card to make, I actually made quite a few of these cards for Hospice. Birthday, Thanks and Thinking of you. I have the stamp set and the background stamp....so yeah, I think this will be my "go to" card for everything....easy and fast to make.

This was a fun card to make, punched out owls. We made the branches for the owls to sit on then pieced together the owls. Bright and colorful.

This was a pretty card. The flowers were embossed. The background???? You know, I forgot what we did. I shall have to ask, was it water color??? Anyways, it turned out really pretty.

This card was stamped and embossed, we colored it in with copic markers and sponged in the blue sky and water. Stamping the birds and verse. Betty always has the pieces cut, so we just have to piece it all together.

Thought you would like to see a few cucumbers growing in my garden....gosh these cucs made a great salad and tasted so good....just wish I had more.....maybe next year.

Well time to close here, you all take care and have a great couple of weeks. I may be back before the month is over....depends. Keep looking up, better days are coming!!! Cheers ~ Louise

Just Busy...Making Cards, Food and Saying Bye-bye 2 Christmas

 Hi there everyone....well, here we go into January and tomorrow is the 7th already. Where did this week go??? They say time flies when we are having a good time......I guess I must be having a good time, for a 70 year old.

Thought I would show you a few more cards I made with this "stained glass" die cut. I sure do like this die. I have actually made a few more cards like this, one in orange and one in grey. Both are pretty nice. They are actually relaxing to make, sort of like adult coloring. I will take pictures of both after I make another grey "Thanks".

Went to the neighbors on Tuesday, to show her how to make some cards and she liked the grey "stained glass" so much, she asked if she could have it. She wants to frame it. So I gave it to her. Along with a few ideas for making her own cards. It was a fun morning.

The cards below were some of my first cards made with the die and new alcohol ink pens.

In this next picture is a meal from Blue Apron. "Steaks and Green Peppercorn Sauce with kale and Roasted Potatoes" This was a yummy meal, very easy and down to earth kinda cooking. The steak was tender and seasoned just right....I used half the peppercorns, so it was not spicy. The potatoes were sliced, oiled, salted and peppered then roasted till browned. Kale was cooked with minced garlic. Yep, very good meal. 5 stars!!! 

I don't know if I told you about these cookies....gosh, were they good, I could not stop eating them. Made with 5 eggs, 2 sticks of soft butter, 1 cup to 1-1/2 cup sugar, mix together. Add 2 cups flour, 1 teasp. almond extract and some crushed almonds. Mix till the consistency of sticky pancake mix or heavy pudding. Pour on cookie sheet (use parchment paper). Bake 350 degrees till the outside of cookie is browned like in the picture. I timed it about 20 minutes. Such a good Cookie.....will make these again, soon. Oh and top the cookie with one raisin before baking. Oh, they are called "Mama's Cookies"

Next picture are the cards I was showing my neighbor how to make. She has to make 30 thank you cards and wanted to use this technique. All it is, is distress inks dabbed on card stock, using any color you desire, then dabbed with water to make the water spots.....I really like this technique....quick and easy.

I found this card on the Internet....thought it would be an easy card to make for Hospice meeting which is coming up in 3 weeks. Need to have lots of Valentine cards made, so I better get cracking. One of the ladies that comes to the meeting had heart surgery in November. She died of complications a week ago. She will be missed.

Well, time to close here....I have been slowly taking down my Christmas things. It is hard to say good-bye. Just have my Village and little Christmas tree up. I usually keep the tree up till after Valentines Day. Changing lights and bulbs from blues to red and putting hearts on the tree. Yeah....it is hard to say bye-bye to my Christmas tree and village. So....maybe one more month of lights.

You all have a great weekend and keep looking up, better days are coming.
Cheers ~ Louise

Happy New Year 2017

Hi there everyone...HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! YAY.....another new beginning. Well, so far, things are pretty much the same.....no changes. But anyways, I had a good evening. Spent it with my cards. Ending the year with making cards and beginning the year with making cards.....hope there is a profit this year...that would be nice. I might make this my last year with Etsy....didn't get very many sales in 2016, course I was not promoting it that much. Everything is for a season.....I think I have been on Etsy 9 years....maybe it is time to close down the store....I don't know...just thinking.

Friday night I made this Blue Apron meal.....this was really good!!! "Cod en Papillot with Freekeh and Spinach" "En Papillote" means "In Parchment" So yeah, the fish was baked in parchment paper. I do believe I will do this more often. This is what I like about Blue Apron.....learning something new and using it in my regular cooking.

The freekeh was cooked like rice. The spinach cooked down with garlic and the water drained from it. Parchment is laid out, freekeh laid to the side of the paper, then topped with spinach, then the cod that has been salted and peppered. The paper is folded to close into an envelope. Baked 10-12 minutes or until the packets are lightly browned and puffed up. A herb sauce of cream, parsley and lemon zest and 1/4 of the minced garlic and juice of 2 lemon wedges is poured over the fish, spinach and freekeh. I also made some oven fries which JP loves, served with sour cream and chives. Definitely a 5 star meal.

Following are the cards that I was working on last night. I got this new die cut "Stained Glass" from Spellbinders. I really like this die. The "Thanks" die cut not sure where I got it. But here I used all my purple colors, then ran the die cut through the cuttlebug with purple sparkle paper. And Wa-la, a pretty card. Then I thought....why not carry this through to.....

The red colors on a pink card. Then how about........

Green colors on a white card. I also have a card in blues....maybe the next one will be in oranges and today my thought was greys.....Yep, the ideas are endless!!

Today, New Years Day.....I made another Blue Apron meal....a really good one. "Steaks and Green Peppercorn Sauce with Kale and Roasted Potato" Yep....another 5 star. I will tell you about it in my next post along with a picture. For dessert we had cheese cake with cherries on top.....I am full.

Thought I would start my diet today.....nope, not today. Well, I did lose 5 pounds in December. Hopefully I can lose another 5 pounds this month.

Time to close here.....Packers are playing the Detroit Lions....oh, oh Detroit just scored...it's tied at 7-7 now.

You all have a great night and I wish for you to have a great NEW YEAR with good health and prosperity and only good things happen for you. Keep looking up ~ better days are coming.

Cheers ~ Louise

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Hope you have a wonderful day with family and friends. Enjoy your meal with all the trimmings that go along with a turkey dinner, or what ever you may be serving on this special day!!!

Cheers ~ Louise

A Few Cards for Hospice and a Mini Misti

Hi there everyone...how was your day today. It was a little bit warm today...weatherman said it would be in the 90's....uge, too warm for me. We did not start working in the yard till about 5:00. Actually that is my usual time when JP is working....my energy level does not raise till about then and I can get loads done in those few hours before it gets dark and the mosquito's start biting.

Well, this past week I was working on cards for the Hospice meeting yesterday. The cards below were cards made for 4th of July. I made 22 cards for this event. I may use the same design for Veterans day cards in October. These were fun to make.....and a few ladies asked how I made them using the embossing folder and strips of red, white, and blue papers.

So in this picture is the Mini Misti that I won....it sure has come in handy and so much fun to use. I saw a tutorial on YouTube where they showed "10 ways to use the Misti". I shall have to write them down, as Betty wants me to do a short "show and tell" about the misti at her house at next card meeting.

In this picture of the 6 flowers and the one above, I used the Misti. It's a layered technique, the stamp has 3 layers, using different colors for each layer and then the stem and saying are stamped also.

This is a quick card I made....ran the pink and yellow paper through the crimper, then punched a butterfly....negative and positive....with a Happy Birthday and Thank You for the saying. This could be my "go to" card when I need a fast card to make.

These are my scenic picture cards.....I made a bunch of these cards up, different scenes for Birthday and Thinking of you.

Just one of these cards in the collection....I did make two, but held back on one because I want one for a sample to make some more.

My stained glass sail boat stamp. There are so many ways to color this....reminds me of the Adult coloring books....makes for a nice card, and I added a "thanks" die cut.

So, there you have it....just some cards I made for Hospice. We have a two month vacation from Hospice and back together again in September. Then we have to have Veterans and Halloween cards made. I am not much of a Halloween fan....so there will be very few in my collection....maybe mostly Fall cards for this girl.

Time to close, I want to go downstairs where it is cool and make some cards. So talk to you later and have a great weekend. Keep looking up, cause better days are coming.
Cheers ~ Louise

Cards Made @ Stampin'Up Camp

Hi there everyone. How has your week been going so far. I have been a little lackadaisical lately. Was not feeling well yesterday, so I took the day off. Today? I woke up with the side of my chin and side of mouth swollen. A complete mystery to me. Not sure if something bite me during the night or I if had been chewing on the side of my mouth during the night...never had that before. The inside of my mouth is a bit sore, so maybe I was "chomping at the bit" during the night. Must have been having some stressful dreams or something. Well, today I am feeling okay, except for the swolleness. Got up kind of late today, like 12noon. Yikes, half the day was over.

Well yesterday JP finally went to a foot Doctor, after suffering with planter warts and corns for over 3 years. The last couple of weeks he could hardly walk around. I said, "Go to a Doctor"!!! I have so, come to the point that I am tired of his moaning and complaining of his arm pains, feet pain, gout and arthritis pains and a few of his other ailments. He does not listen to me when I say, go to a Doctor....finally he did. Whew, the doctor shaved his corns and wart off and put acid on them. He can actually walk without pain. He can go for follow-up if need be. Hopefully this will work out for him.

Well on to some better news. Sunday I went to a Stampin'up Camp and in the following pictures are some of the things I was able to make. In the top picture is an envelope. Stampin'up has a neat gadget that can make any size envelope you want.....I think I may buy this...it was only $19.95....just think of all the pretty envelopes I could make.

In this picture is a little box. Stampin'up has another neat gadget that makes all sorts of different size boxes....cute...but I don't think I would get a lot of use out of this box maker. So, it's not on the list of things to get.

This was a fun craft. Making bags, I guess you could buy the bags from Stamping up....also buy the stamp set and the die cuts. The bag turned out cute...just need something to put in it now.

Now this was a pretty card...the stars were stamped then die cut. The little stars are a punch. The back ground (light blue) went through the Big Shot to give it a textured look.

I liked doing this card, just a simple tag that was stamped "thanks". I actually bought the punch for the top of the tag, which you cannot see too well. I think this will make a nice card for Hospice, where I could stamp most anything seasonal on the tag, happy birthday, thinking of you etc. and make it work for any season I decide.

Here is a cute Christmas card....for some reason I had a problem following directions on this one and needed to re-do the card. The green back ground just barely fit the white card. I probably needed to cute it down a bit. The green back ground with the candy cane and saying was originally on a square, but I had it turned around and could not fit it right. So we just die cut another piece of green to fit the white piece. Oh well, that's how cards are made....from "sometimes" mistakes. 

Last picture, this is what I won as a door prize....yay...I don't usually win things at doings like this, so I was happy to come away with something. It is something I will actually be able to use for my Christmas cards. Of which I probably will be working on in the next few weeks. Better hurry....December is right around the corner. Oh my so much to do and so little time.

Well, I guess that should be all for today. Thursday, weather permitting, I will be going to another card making session and 4 more cards. Watch for them on Friday and maybe even a recipe for "Toad in the Hole". In the mean time, have a great day and keep looking up. Cheers ~ Louise