Happy Easter & Conner's Birthday

HAPPY EASTER to everyone !!!

What a truly BLESSED day and my heart is filled with joy to know that our Lord gave His life to save mine and all of yours too. I do hope that you will take a little time to reflect on how much He sacrificed during His life and at that final hour to save each and everyone of us.

To my followers.... I apologize for not posting anything for awhile - we managed to get about 4 'rare' days of dry sunny weather and so had to take advantage of that and do some much needed yard work. Due to these activities, I strained my back so now I am also struggling with back pain, it can really get me down.
I have been coloring up some images and eager to start making a card so you will see one soon.

Meanwhile, I thought that I would share with you some pictures of my grandson's (Conner) birthday. He is such a cutie.... I just LOVE his freckles which are a little hard to see in the pictures. My favorite is the one with his new baseball cap on. I also have a few of my new granddaughter 'Faith' and another of my oldest granddaughter 'Isabella' with her mom.

This is Conner with his new baseball cap on and he looks really nice in his plaid flannel shirt.

This is Conner, contemplating whether he is in the mood to eat his lunch or go outside to play.

This is Isabella and a friend being silly during lunch.... when kids see a camera, then they feel a need to 'pose'.

This is Isabella and her mom showing her how to use their new baseball bat/ball and tee. I am sure they will get a lot of use out of this.

This is Faith with a neighbor friend holding her... while grandpa is making faces at her to get her to smile and we caught one - oh so cute.

This is the creek that runs by the house and through their property. It looks so pretty but right now, it is deeper and runs faster due to all the rain we have been getting. This picture was actually taken from 'inside' the house.





Hope you enjoyed these pictures and I will go spend some time today making a new card for everyone.
Until then,
God Bless you ALL
Karen

Edwin with Butterflies

Happy Saturday everyone.

It is hard to believe that it is taking me so long to send you another post. I was working on a card but was not done with it and so I wrote a different post... I guess it was not meant to be for by the time that I was just about done, the system went down. I was NOT going to start over. Has that ever happened to you??

Anyways, I have been working on a birthday card for my grandson for the past few days. I kept changing my mind on what I wanted to do but in the end, I feel it has turned out pretty well. It reminds me of him, since he is 5 years and love to run and play on the farm.

I made it 3D so that it looks like he is running in a field of grass and flowers, chasing butterflies. I inked around the edges of the wings and put a little glitter on the wings of the butterflies so that they stand out a bit more. I inked and cut out three layers of grasses and used pop dots so that they stand out, also had to use pop dots on Edwin.

Challenges:
Midnight Madness MMSC99
Papertake Weekly - Truely Dimensional
Cute Card Thursday - Weathered Inspired #160
Just Magnolia - Happy Birthday #102

Supplies:
CS - Stampin Up
DP - Basic Grey
Image - Edwin (do not know name) from Magnolia
Sentiment - Stampin Up
Grass images - Onyx Expressions
Punches - Leaves by Martha Stewart, Swirls by EK Success, Butterflies by Cutting Edge and Scallop circle die by Spellbinders
Flower by Prima
Others - brads, glitter glue, Prismacolor color pencils, CTMH ink pads.

I hope you enjoyed this one... it sure took me a long to time to complete.
I would love to read your comments.... until next time.

Hugs, Karen

Tilda with Roses & Sketch n Stash

Happy Tuesday everyone.

Yea!!!! We are getting a very welcome dry spell, I was even able to get out and mow the lawn. Although the rain is due back tomorrow.

I have a big PRAISE to share with you all. My son in law struggles with severe back pain due to his disinegrating discs in his lower back. He is not able to work, it is challenging enough to keep up with farm activities and the kids while my daughter is at work. Today he had his disability hearing with the judge and it was approved... Praise God!!! This has answered many, many prayers. The next struggle will be surgery, they really want to have the disc replacement surgery but the insurance companies will not cover it... the only other option is disc fusion but this will cause him to have limited mobility. They are not sure just how much longer he can wait but God will guide them to the next step.

Today we went out to pick up a birthday gift for our grandson who will be '5 years' tomorrow. They have a large creek that runs through there farm and so we bought him his first fishing pole. I cannot wait to see him use it, the only challenge I see is whether he will have the patience to wait for the fish to bite - time will tell. His party is this coming Sunday, so I will have some birthday pictures for you next week.

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Onto my card... I have been playing around with my colored pencils with a blending pen. It actually turned out really well.... the picture does not give it justice at all. The layout is from Sketch n Stash, stop over there to see all the great cards the DT made. I made the corner designs using a corner punch and snipped them out and layered to help them stand out. I used the same punch accent poking out from the sentiment. I used flowers, leaf punch and a teeny, tiny butterfly to finish it off.

Here is a close up of Tilda but it still did not bring out the true colors and details on Tilda.

Supplies:
Image - 'Tilda with Curls' from Magnolia
Sentiment - Unknown
DP - DCWV
Punches - Corner Swirls by  EK Success, Butterfly by Cutting Edge, Branches by Martha Stewart, Image cut out with Spellbinder die.
Others - Prima flowers, brads

Hope you enjoyed stopping by and would love to hear your comments.

Blessings
Karen

Bunny and Soccer

Happy Sunday everyone. I tried to put together a post a couple days ago but for some reason, the program would not let me download any pictures... well I did not want to publish the post with out the picture so I just deleted it and decided that I would try later. Just hate when that happens....

Hope everyone has had a wonderful weekend. We had a great time yesterday watching our grandkids 'first' soccer game. The oldest is in first grade and really enjoyed herself. Her father is the coach and the main goal 'at this early age' is to learn to work together as a team and have fun. It was pretty cold out and the ground was wet and muddy but that is normal for soccer games. I remember when I took our kids to there games, so much fun. At this age, they are fun to watch since they are 'all feet'. Here are a couple of pictures of there game, Isabella is the one in the middle with her leg in the air just after a kick.

This is Isabella with her littler sister 'Faith'.  

This is our newest grandchild 'Faith', who is all bundled up since it was pretty nippy outside. Oh so cute.








Hope you enjoyed those pictures of my grandkids. I did not manage to get a one of my grandson for he was too busy playing over on the playground. He was on another team but when it came time to actually go out to play, he could not do it. He started to cry, took off his shirt and took off... so they will try to see if he wants to play on Isabella's team next week. He is only 5 and struggles with social scenarios.

Now I have a card to share with you. I colored this little bunny up so it is bright and sunny and decided that I wanted to keep that bright and cheery feeling throughout the card. I decided that I wanted to keep the card a clean and simple design and even though I could have added a lot more bling, I decided against it.



I hope you like it and would love to hear your comments.


My God Bless You
Karen

Tilda with Bird in Cage & Blog Candy Offer

Today, I thought I would spend some much needed time doing housework... I know, BORING!! After the floors were mopped and a nice coat of 'Mop n Glow' was used, they looked so much better. Well as better as they can since they desparately need to be replaced.

After my chores were done, I was going to go into my craft room but then decided to spend time blog hopping. Oh it is so much fun to look through all the wonderful blogs and get inspiration with all the fabulous cards. So many ideas and so little time... as the saying goes.

I have a card I made yesterday, it is Tilda all in green and purple. I like that color combo and I try to challenge myself to use only the papers and supplies I have and I found one that I liked. Have you ever bought some papers that you fell in love with and when you go to use it, you cannot find a complimentary papers to go with it... that is something I tend to run into many times. So I decide to stick with a solid with this one. I made a ribbon circle and put a flower in the middle to add design and texture. This one was pretty simple to put together using some ribbon, flowers and pearls to finish it off.

* * * *  CANDY  * * * * * *
Now to let you know about some awesome blog candy over on Tracy's Stamping Corner. It contains all kinds of wonderful items. Please swing on over to her blog and check out her lovely cards and sign up for the candy. I have it posted on my side board for quick reference.

I hope that you enjoyed your visit today... I would love to hear from you.
Blessings
Karen

Easter Bunny Carrots

Happy Tuesday everyone. Today I had a fun day for my sister came over and we spent the day being creative on our paper crafts. I could not think of a better way to spend the day.

I used a different light source to take my pictures. It appeared to provide better lighting but I am still struggling with pulling out the acurate colors using my photo s/w program. I guess I need to spend more time playing around with it.... if anyone has any tricks to share, I would love to hear your input.

This card I made for a Penny Black challenge. I love all the fabulous images that Penny Black has but my favorites are the adorable animals but then I tend to lean towards anything 'cutsy'. I had fun making my own flowers which is the challenge over on Our Creative Corner. The butterflies are actually prettier than they are in the picture, they have glitter around the edges and the body are beads. The additional accents of swirls, ribbon and leaves, it finishes off the card.

I am submitting this to these challenges:
Penny Black Challenge 145 - follow sketch
Our Creative Corner - Girl Power - Handmade Flower - ribbon - bling
The Secret Crafters Saturday Challenge 128 - Butterflies

The supplies:
CS & DP - Stampin Up
Image - Penny Black
Senitment - Peddlers Pack
Punches - Leaf and Butterfly (Martha Stewart), Swirls (EK Success)
Die -Spellbinder Scallop Oval
Others - Brads, Glitter Glue, Beads, Ribbons

I am glad that you dropped by, I would love to hear from you.
Have a wonderful Blessed Day
Karen

Springtime Tilda

Happy Sunday everyone. I hope that you are having a wonderful day. It is still cool and wet here and the forcast does not sound like it will be improving anytime soon.

Since it is determined to be cloudy outside, I decided to make a bright and cheery card. It came together fairly quickly. I used bright background paper and colored Tilda to match. I used a silk white flower and put it under the small roses to add a little extra deminsion. I also added some netting behind a spray of white flower buds so it would stand out a bit more. I added some glitter glue to the outside edges of the small white circle and larger white doily - it gave it that litte extra 'pop'. From there, a little ribbon and pearls finish it off.

I am submitting it on the following challenges:
Creative Card Crew - Child
Charisma Cardz Challenge - Bling & Sparkle
Stampin for the Weekend - Mum
Allsorts Challenge Blog - Blooming Blossoms
Paper Sundaes - Spring Blossoms

Supplies:
CS - Stampin Up
DP - DCWV
Image - Tilda (Magnolia)
Die - Spellbinder Tulip
Flowers - Lg (Prima), Sm (Recollections), Sm white silk and buds.
Others - ribbon, pearls, netting, doily and glitter glue.
Prismacolor Markers (Copic equivilent) for Tilda

The picture did not turn out as well as I would have liked. I need to find a way to create better lighting but I hope you will be able to see it ok.

I am glad that you dropped by and I appreciate your comments.
Blessings
Karen

Blowing in the Wind & some CANDY!

April Fools Day!!! Did you have a fun day today... I sure hope so. Can you believe another month has passed and we are already in April.

I want to share a card I made but I did not edit the picture correctly and so it turned out too small... so sorry for that. I had fun making it, as I do all cards. The image and sentiment is from Stampin Up, Spellbinder scallop oval dies and a border die as well. A touch of trim lace and that is it... oh, I color with Prismacolor Markers.

I want to share with you some AWESOME blog candy from Jacque's Joie De Vivre. See my sidebar for a link to the candy,  hurry and sign up for it ends April 4th. A big thanks to Jacque for offering this to us.

Well that is all for now...
Have a great evening/day or whatever it is in your neck of the woods.
Blessings
Karen

Epilepsy

Hard to believe that another week has slipped by. I am looking forward to the weekend and plan to spend some time in my craft room. I have been looking through all the different amazing challenges that are out there... now to decide which ones I will tackle.

Do you have a loved one or friend who suffers from epilepsy? I do, my husband has epilepsy and he has had it since he was little.. They were somewhat controlled for many years until about 12 years ago where they started getting more frequent and the petite mals turned to partial and gran mals. He was laid off work and the seizures has affected his congitive abilities which along with his seizures, he can no longer work.

From that moment on, I knew that my role was changing to be his caregiver. I was trying to check in with him while I worked but had to either go home or stay home when he was having seizures. I luckily had a great and understanding boss and was able to work from home.

He was starting to have more gran mals and he would end up in the hosptial several times a year. This was stressful for both of us for I could not give him the attention that he really needed.  About 3 years ago, I was laid off and it actually was the best thing for both of us.... for now I am his caregiver. Even though he will get a cluster of seizures every one to three weeks, they are all partials for I am there to help him and so far, he no longer gets the gran mals.

He see's an epileptic specialist and he has tried everything in the books (literally). He even had a VNS (vagular nerve stimulator) implant and while it helps most people, it did pretty much nothing for him. He was tested to see if he was a candidate for brain surgery but again, they could not identify the precise spot where they occur which is required for this type of surgery. He has tried all the different medicines on the market and while some seem to help 'slightly', none have been able to stop the seizures. Now he is on a trial medicine program and we were so hopeful that it would see signicant improvements but yet again, there is not much change. We even took him up to the Seattle Epileptic Clinic for a second opinion but in the end, the diagnosis was the same. This gave us even more confidence in the specialist that he has.

So what now..... I try to make adjustments as he runs into potentially dangerous situations. Like a shower bench and handheld shower in the tub, he wears a helmet now since he has had a few head injuries while falling during a seizure and others. Even though I really should be working due to financial constriants, I cannot and I look to God for strength and encouragement for He will provide. Here are a few of the scriptures that can help....

John 14:27   Peace I leave to you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid.

Mark 9:23  Jesus said to him, :If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes."

I John 5 14:15  Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the peitions that we have asked of Him.

There are many more that I will share later...

If you are unfamiliar with epilespy, I encourage you to visit these sites. Many people do not understand that there are over 3 million people who suffer from epilepsy and the number is growing by about 200,000 each year.
http://www.epilepsyfoundation.org/
http://www.epilepsy.com/
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/epilepsy/DS00342

Well that is all for today, I would love to hear your comments, words of encouragement, your stories and struggles with epilespy.

God Bless
Karen