Loss and other yucky things

Sorry I haven't posted in a bit. It's been a rough two weeks. My gram was ill and passed away last weekend. My aunt was hospitalized. Nine people in my family got the nasty GI bug. My trainer moved on to another gym (minor in light of my gram's passing, I know, especially since I can keep in touch with him). It was not a fun period, let's just say. I like to look at the positives in even the most negative situations, though. I got to be with my Gram when she took her last breath. I got to hold her hand as she moved on. I have been reminded once again of how many supportive, caring people exist in my life, as the messages of condolence continue to come in and people continue to offer their assistance. My friend gave me a sign for my desk that says, "God only gives us what we can handle. God must think I'm a bad ass." Yeah, that about covers it.

Anyway, before all of the illnesses happened, I sat down and made Matt (my trainer) a quick card to thank him for all he's done for me in the last six or so months. He's a great guy who is awesome at what he does. He's encouraging, compassionate, and yet a bit of a hard ass when he needs to be. He needed to be with me, because I'm stubborn and cranky about the whole working out thing. I think I cursed more than his macho male clients! In fact, I know I did, because he told me so. The poor guy put up with a lot of BS and excuses from me while managing to push me in the right direction. So, I yanked out some of my new Stampscapes stamps and made him the following card:

Masculine cards are so hard for me. That's one of the many reasons I love the Stampscapes line of stamps, because they are quick, easy, and make awesome cards for men. I also like that they still look striking even when they are not colored. In fact, I'm kind of intimidated about coloring them. I mainly use my copics on people and animal images, not so much on these detailed nature images that need a lot of shading and attention to light source. I guess that should be a new crafty resolution of mine: stamp off and then actually color a stampscapes scene. Heck, I'm a bad ass. I can handle it. I think.

Hugs for my friend

I'm scheduling this post to show up on Saturday evening, so let's hope it works! Blogger hasn't really been showing me much love lately, so I have my concerns.

Anyway, I'm off to go see my friend Sara this weekend. I was in the mood to play with an image I colored a while ago and when I found this sentiment in my stash, it just seemed perfect to go with her. What do you think?

This is one of those instances where I can't share the copic colors with you, because I colored this cutie from CC Designs over a year ago. Sorry about that! It's also one of those cases where I threw everything but the kitchen sink at the card and just decided to see what looked right enough to stick it down. Who am I kidding? That's my usual tendency! It's how my craft room ends up being such a hot mess after I make one lousy card!!!

Anyway, thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a fabulous weekend!!!

I love creative days

My original plans for yesterday were canceled, so I had some spare time to sit down at my craft desk and create. For once, Mr. Mojo was visiting during one of these times! Hallelujah. I might have chased him off again, though, since I didn't feed him any chocolate, chips, or other delicious snacks. This trying to eat healthier thing sucks sometimes.

Anyway, back to it.

I took a class at Stamp Hideaway with the awesome Sharon. She has boxes of Stampscapes stamps, and taught me how to use them. Thank you, Sharon! I am now addicted. Of course, I had to buy some of my own. The card fronts for the cards below were actually made using her stamps, though. I just had to take a few minutes to mount them on cards.

I love how you can leave them in black and white. I think they look striking that way. Each scene takes several stamps to create, but it's actually quick and easy once you learn how to do it. Makes for fast cards when you need one in a hurry.

Then I had colored some images ages ago and used those to get some more cards made. It's time to send in Mother's Day cards for Operation Write Home, so that they can get to the soldiers in time to write notes and send them back home. I made more cards than those pictured, but I don't want to overload you too much. Here's a sampling of the cards I made with some images I'd precolored:

As usual, I tried to keep them kind of flat for ease of mailing. All images were colored with copics.

Thanks for stopping by my blog. I hope you'll consider taking some time out to make a few cards for Operation Write Home. Enjoy what remains of your weekend!

Hippity Hopping, Easter's on its way!

My aunt hosts Easter at her house and she goes all out. A pinata, games and crafts for the kids, a huge spread of food; you know, all of the stuff I suck at doing because I hate entertaining. I have fun at her house, though. It's a blast and a highlight of the spring season. I try to make her a cute Easter card to thank her for all that she does. This year, I had a hard time. I picked my image and colored it to match the papers I'd also found for it. I was excited, because the DP was perfect. Then I cut it all up, put it on a card, and decided to finish it off with some flowers. Not a big deal, right? I use flowers a lot. Well, this time, they didn't look right and because I had put them down with KI Gloo, those suckers were not coming off without taking half of the card with them. Damn you, KI Gloo, for being so strong! So, I had to start over. Luckily, I had just enough scraps left to make another card. Here it is:

How cute is that paper? The image is pretty darned cute, too. Wanna see it? Here you go:

It's a digi from Whimsy. I love the mama with her babies. Or, in this case, the grandma with her grandbabies. My aunt has 5 grandchildren. Just perfect, right?

Image colored with copics, as usual. Papers are New Bug in a Rug's One Fine Day. Ribbon and flower clip from my stash. Little silver pearl studs from Recollections. I got the charms on ebay ages ago.

I'm entering this in the following challenges:
Whimsy Stamps: use metal
Oozak: Anything goes with spring