A Post!!!

It has been WAY too long since I've posted anything to my blog.  Life has been  fast and furious around here.  I'm running so hard trying to meet deadlines that I can see my behind in front of me!!  Hee Hee...

Father's Day is coming up and here is the card I did for my Father-in-law.  He is the only daddy I have left and he is very dear to me!  Since I recently went to the Michelle Zindorf class, I wanted to do SOMETHING with what I learned.  Ray's dad likes to hunt and this set that I got in the class was just perfect for him!!  I did the brayering perfect.........all THREE times that I had to make that little oval.  The first time I tried to stamp the grass and tree leaves while the die was in place.......bad decision.  Didn't work for me.  Then I tried using a mask and it didn't work for me either.  So, Third time is the charm, right?  Instead of trying to stamp the grass and tree leaves, I just drew them in.  I used the same idea as the stamp I was trying to use.  The copic multiliners are so wonderful for this purpose.  I used the .03 and the .2 ones and the thin lines you can get are awesome. 

The background is a super cool technique from the the TJ newsletter called Antique Wallpaper.  So easy and the results are always wonderful.  That's my kind of technique!!  Hope it inspires you to get busy and get a card done for your favorite daddy!

Charlotte and Ann update: 
I'm really tired of going to the chiropractor.  I'm down to twice a week now seeing the chiro along with a massage that same day.  The Chiropractor deleted one of her visits and added one from the physical therapist.  We are hoping that the PT can add in some exercises that will help my bulging disc and in turn get some feeling into my toes.  I'm slowing feeling better though!  Now for my mom's progress.  She saw her new doctor about a week ago.  The doctor seems nice and she is supportive of holistic treatments which pleases mom.  She changed mom's BP meds and they seem to be doing much better than the diruetics which were making her dizzy.  We see her again on Monday.

A quick one!

Hope you are having a great weekend? Mine will be full of rain. Which isn't entirely a bad thing......that means I'll have time to stamp!! I actually totally spaced that I needed to have this card done for the Technique Junkie blog and ran downstairs last night after our family left. Had this card done in a jiffy. The background is called Brayered impressions from the Dec 09 newsletter. I submitted the technique but I don't think I was the first to really think of it! It is so fast and fun. 

Mom Update:  Mom got a prescription from the ER doctor and has an appointment to see her new doctor in about 12 days or so.   I'm sure she will want to pursue natural treatments once her BP is controlled with meds.  I know she really doesn't want to take the meds!  Can't blame her for that.  I tried natural stuff but it didn't seem to help me.

Accident update on me.........had an MRI on Thursday and Dr. shared the results with me at my appointment on Friday.  Yes......this is a disc bulging and that is why my toes are numb.  The real question is whether it was caused by the accident or not.  I'd say that my toes didn't have issues before the accident so it at least aggrevated any problem I may have had if it didn't cause it to begin with.  Chiropractor said that she may add PT into my treatment plan. 

All the kids came over tonight to celebrate my 57th bday!  Got some mad money, a certificate for a pedicure, and a insulated cookie sheet (I needed that!).  Thank you all!  {Mwah!}

Mom Update

Mom did decide she would do the BP meds and we have a GP appointment in two weeks.  I hope things start getting back to normal.

Had a nice birthday today........, appointment in the morning and MRI at noon for my back, piano lesson in the afternoon, rhododendron society meeting where I gave out the trophy award certificates in the evening.  My kids will be coming over tomorrow night.  My daughter=in-law had three of the youngest grandkids do a birthday video for me.....so sweet.  It is on my facebook page!

I'm hoping to get some stamping done tomorrow!

ER & Mom

Took my mom to ER last night. She came upstairs and said that she felt weird.  As she was standing at her microwave drying flowers in her Microfleur, she said that her vision was blurry and white.  Her ears were sensitive to noise, she even was holding her hands over her ears because the piano I was playing seemed too loud.  General weakness.  I had asked her to smile and nothing looked crooked (like a stroke).  She was having trouble coming up with words to items she knew (like 'microwave').  Decided to take her BP and it was 210/94.  That's when we decided to take her into ER. Got there at 8pm and got home at 2:30am.  I am so pooped.....Zander arrived at 8am so I'm running low on energy for watching my sweet 'almost 2 year old' grandson.  The doctor did an EKG, CAT scan, Ultrasound on her carotids, and blood work.  After waiting (soooooooo boring) all the test came back okay.  Diagnosis.....TIA's.  Take a full aspirin each day and get on BP meds.  My mother does NOT want to do the BP meds.  Most all meds give her some kind of bad reaction and she is fearful of starting some.  I hope she can make a good decision about BP meds.....I'd like to have her around for a long time.

A Zindorfian time!

This last Saturday I was priviledged to take the Beginning and Advanced Classes from Michelle Zindorf.  I had a wonderful time with sevearl local friends.  Met some more local ladies there as well.  Yeah!  Now I finally know how to brayer without those pesky lines on my work.  Thanks so much, Michelle, for your tutoring.  Here is a picture of most of us.  This picture is missing several of our members though....a mother/daughter team.  I hope that you'll see some Zindorfian work in the future.  I told Michelle that her last name lent itself to saying that much more than mine.  Zindorfian......sounds fun.  Clackian....not so much!  BTW.....that's me next to Michelle.....I'm the one with the white hair!

A fun one for a friend

An older lady at church normally gets cards from me at my yearly card sale.   But last week at church she came to me with a special request.  A funny card for a 70 year old man.  Hmmmm..........well......I happened onto the Sketch challenge over at Hogs & Sketches (by Hambo Stamps) and I decided that I would participate.  THEN I saw the card that Monica (one of Hambo's owners) made.  Her sentiment was just perfect for an older man so I decided to use it with a little tweak of my own.  Since I was using the freebie bongo Henry, the sentiment had to reflect him!  The inside of the card says  "Old!"  ALSO, stolen from Monica.  Thanks Monica for your inspiration!  Henry is colored with copic markers.  The 70 was hand drawn and colored in.  I only had a quickly hand drawn sketch of this week's sketch.......I guess I reversed the sizes of the small circles......sorry!

Nope......I haven't fallen off!

It has been so long since I posted on my blog, I bet you thought I fell off the face of the earth!  Nope....just terribly busy!  Here is the card that I made for my Mother for Mother's Day.  It uses the Masked Spellbinders technique from the April 2010 issue of the Technique Junkie Newsletter. 

Today I received a card in the mail from Cathy Yamashita and it was just beautiful.  It inspired me to create this card.....since I didn't have it done yet!  The stamps are from Stamp Camp and Hero Arts.  The inside over flowers are colored with copic markers. 

When I stamped the sentiment, it marked where it shouldn't have....drat!!  So, I decided to cover up the mistake by drawing the rosebud.   When problems like that happen, try to cover them up in a creative way. 

The bird is cut out and mounted with foam tape.  The green layer is lighter in real life.  The lighting really did funny things to it.  My overhead light also illuminated the pearls.  They don't really shine like that!!

This will be a busy weekend........ Ray and I will be working at Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden all weekend.  He helps with judging and recording and later plant sales.  I am in charge of the trophies, their purchase and display, as well as the judging process to award them. 

This has been a good week for me.  I've felt the best I have since the accident.  A general feeling of well being.  The shoulders are still a little tight but the hip is hurting less.  The toes are still numb but I think they are getting a little better too.  Yeah!!

Don't you wonder too?

So........as I have been looking at the Feedjit at where the different people are from that visit my blog, I notice some fun places and wonder, "Just who are they?"

Someone from Perth, Western Australia, visits often.....I wonder if I know them? 

How about the people from Oregon or the people from Ohio?  I've lived in Ohio in a tiny town called Carey until I was 13 and still have a soft spot in my heart for Carey.  I see people from Billings, Montana and wonder if they know my daughter's in-laws, the Zagels.

Did you arrive from a foreign country?  I'd love to know how your found me and who you are!  ;-)

Okay.....I'm done......going off to stamp!

Sanded to perfection!

I wanted to do something simple today.....well.....at least it was supposed to be simple and fast.   I ended up making about 4 of there flowers to finally get the one that was the color I wanted....sheesh!  This flower was in the e-newsletter from Splitcoaststampers this last Wednesday.  Instead of spritzing the flower with my color (which was too dark for me) I just rubbed the flower on the stamp pad instead.  The background behind the flower is Technique Junkies technique called Sanded Cordinations.  I had gone to the local stamp store and they had a gazillion colors of this cool paper.  I didn't have ribbon to match this color so I used white ribbon and colored it with my copic markers.  The only thing I don't like about doing that is that the ribbon is a little stiff when you are done.

Accident update:  Still waiting for the car....hopefully tomorrow!  Still seeing the chiropractor and massage therapist but this week I'm finally starting to feel a little better!

Spritzed Stone Turtle

Isn't this turtle just darling?  This image is from Dustin Pike and is colored with copic markers.  I've had such fun with his images.  You can see them on his blog:  http://www.dustinpike.blogspot.com/  He sells many of his designs but some are available for free too!  The mottled background behind the image is a Technique Junkie technique called Spritzed Stone from the December 2009 newsletter.  Super easy to do.  I chose the light application method so I could get some mottling.  Hope you enjoy it!

Now for the accident update........well.....we are supposed to have our car back sometime this week.  No word from the shop on Friday so now it will be next week!.

Still seeing the chiropractor and getting massages and slowly getting better! 

So....................as my grandson, Zander, says when he is saying goodbye.......C'Ya!  ;-)

Going Gray is great!

Well.....if you know me then you may think that the title of today's post would have something to do with my hair.......BUT.....you're wrong!!  ;-)  Hee Hee!  Today's card was made using a stamp from I Brake For Stamps that I've had for a while and hadn't seen ink.  I was having a hard time making this collage stamp look the way I wanted.  THEN I decided that I would stamp it with SU's Going Gray stamp pad and color it in from there.  I really love the look......very subtle with a very different look.  The image was colored using the Pencil over Marker technique from the Technique Junkie newsletter.  After I colored the image I went through my background stash and found this piece of Veined Marble (another TJ technique) that was just the perfect color!  I added some purple rhinestones that were round.  Got them on a rhinestone sheet from Hero Arts.  Funny how they caught the light in the photo.  They really aren't that bright!!  Hope you enjoy!!

Party Mouse

When I saw this little mouse in a set at the Crafty Secrets booth at the Portland Rubber Stamp Convention, I just had to have it.  I saw it last year and didn't get it so.........when I saw it again I decided not to pass it up this time!  The background on the card is a technique from Technique Junkies called Spritzed Stone.  The colors on the BG are very subtle.  I also embossed it and rubbed a little color over the top.  The mouse is colored with copics.  I also used the "out of the box" technique with my spellbinder label die.  The color of the ribbon really came out quite odd in the picture.....it really matches much better than it looks!!

Hope you like it!

Sounds like our car should be ready by Friday....we'll see! 

A Bird in the Hand......

This card is appearing on the Technique Junkie Blog this weekend as well!  When I first saw this stamp at the recent Rubber Stamp convention in Portland, I knew I had to have it and I knew what I wanted to do with it!   I colored it with copic markers.....twice.....cutting the bird body out to layer.  Then I decided that I wanted to try out my Ranger Crackle glue.  Looks and dries like diamond glaze but it cracks on its own.  I had the pieces already cut out and applied the Crackle.  I had lightly taped to my work space so they wouldn't walk away!  When I cam back in the morning.......eeeeeeeek!!!!!!!.......both pieces had curled into little cylinders.  So I moistened the back and press them with an iron to flatten them back outl.  It only kind of worked.  I used my Xyron to put adhesive over the entire back of the base piece to make it lay flat on the card...sheesh!  Maybe next time I'll just just a little less of the Crackle.  The background behind the bird layer is a Technique Junkie technique called Dabbed Shimmers.  Such an easy technique and the results are sooooo glimmery.  To the real eye, the BG looks very dark brown until you tilt it.  I dug out my letter brads and colored them with my copic markers to match them to the background better.  That purple shimmery paper is from Paper Temptress.  It is wonderfully heavy and was perfect for this card!  You can see the beautiful shimmer on the background and the purple paper as well as the crackle on the close-up.  I hope you enjoy!

Accident update:  Ended up seeing the chiropractor four times this last week with two massages.  Yesterday I felt so good, I thought that my treatment would be shorter than planned.  Then, this morning....UGH! .....I was so stiff and sore when I got out of bed.  My three last toes on my right leg are asleep and the muscle going up the side of the leg from the ankle kept cramping.  Can't wait until some of the inflammation goes down.  I love the massages but don't recommend getting into an accident to get them!!  The car won't be totaled....$5,500 in damages and we should have it back in two weeks or so.  We'll have to purchase two new tires though.  The one that got hit needs to be replaced and there was only 37% tread left so they will only pay that much.  That's okay....BUT you really need to put two tires on and not one new and one old.  So off to Costco to get a couple of tires today.

Easter Goodies

Here are the Easter goodies I made for my grandchildren.  The little nuggets with the Easter bunny faces were an idea I originally got from my friend, Judy.  The bunny face was an idea originally from my friend, Cindy!  Thanks guys for the inspiration.  I put Cindy's bunny face on a box I made with Cardstock and voila!  A cute (really inexpensive) Easter Basket!  I hope you enjoy them and it inspires you to create some yourself........for next year!!

Below is the card that I made for my granddaughters.  I posted the same image several weeks back.  THAT card was for my grandson.  I already had the image colored up so quickly made it into a card.  It has two techniques on it.....marker tapping and out of the box.  There were techniques from the Technique Junkie newsletter.  Marker Tapping was a technique I had submitted.  ;-)  The image is from Dustin Pike and is colored with copic markers.

Car wreck update:  My DH is not complaining....don't know if that means he is trying to be a guy or really isn't bothered.  Me, on the otherhand........My neck, hip, and a little on one hand and knee are bothering me.  Seeing the chiropractor and getting adjusted along with massages.  I love masssages but wouldn't recommend this method of getting them!  Car.....$5,500 in damages and we are hoping that they won't total it. Here are a couple of photos.  One shows the other guys car with its smashed hood.  The Explorer is ours and this picture from home shows the damage a little better.  You still can't see how much it is dented in or the angle of the wheel.  Makes my neck hurt just looking at them.  You can see how far he slide after hitting us.....we're the car with the hatched raised.  The guy that hit us was traveling towards us originally. 

Unpleasant day.......

Well, today STARTED out just fine.  Got up early to head into the Garden to help with the flower show.  I help with the trophy judging and procure the trophies.  Got everything loaded into the Explorer.  As we were leaving town, some guy coming around the corner, puts his car into a 4 wheel drift and hits us on the side.  Cracked the bumper, bent the wheel at a funny angle, mashed the quaterpanel, and got the driver door bad enough we can't open it, and got the door behind just a little.  I can't say that I thought he was speeding but it almost looked like he was trying to drift around the corner.  He claimed his tires were bald but I took pictures and they didn't look too bald to me.  I'm pretty sore in my shoulders and low back.  See the chiropractor on Monday.  Such a bummer.  I am happy that God saw fit to keep us safe.  No one was badly injured on either side.  No other cars were involved and they easily could be.  That little Subaru isn't going anywhere anymore.  I'm so glad my big car took the hit without harming us inside with broken parts.  That you God for your protection!!    This wasn't the first problem we had either.  Last night (Good Friday), on his way to church, Ray's pickup decided to die and we had to have it towed home as well.  Sheesh!  I'm just praying that God sends only a little thing for the third thing......everything somes in threes, right?!

So........I wish everyone a safe and blessed Easter!  Me?  I'll be at church at 7:30am.  I'm directing the choir and we'll sing at both services.  It will be a full day.  Hopefully the ibuprofen will let me sleep.  Night to you all!