The House that I built!

D.L.ART THANKFUL THURSDAY AUGUST LINKY CHALLENGEI hope everyone is doing well!  We have been doing pretty good!  My favorite oldest sister and her hubby, came all the way up from Mississippi, to visit and go to my dad's family reunion.  Then my favorite middle sister came out from Pennsylvania!  So it was like having two family reunions for us!  I has been so nice to see them both and to just have fun.  I just wish we had more time together just to "catch up"!  They will be leaving to head home all to soon.  :'(
 
Anyways, my oldest sister and her hubby just celebrated their 6th wedding anniversary!  Woohoo!  We are so happy for them!  So while they were here, I had the chance to give something more than a card.  Soooo, I think I may have gone overboard a bit...but I just could not resist!  They are never "home" to be able to give them one of my "3D" creations.  I think it may be more for her and not so much for him, except for the goodies inside!  LOL  Inside, I put some Hershey's Kisses & Hugs, with some Reese's Pieces, Also, some battery operated tea light candles to turn on and put inside the house, so that the velum paper windows will glow like there is lights on inside! I think they liked it, what do you think?  They are so cute!  Love those two so much.

I used:
Winter Woodland Cricut Cartridge for the house cut
Everyday Paper Dolls Cricut Cartridge for the grass cuts
Chipboard
K & Company Life's' Journey Designer Paper
White Velum paper
DCWV The Glitzy Glitter Stack
Recollections Glitter on a Roll
Recollections Adhesive Rhinestones
Martha Stewart Scallop Punch
Brown polka dot ribbon from my stash
Tiny flowers from my stash
  

 

 I think they may have liked it all!  What do you all think?

 

So cute!

 

Thank you so much for looking

and I hope you have a day filled with many blessing!

 

Entered in:  D.L.ART THANKFUL THURSDAY AUGUST LINKY CHALLENGE

Just Saying Hello!

We are getting ready to go camping for a few nights!  Yahoo!  I can't wait to get away and do something different.  We have had a lot happen to us in the past few weeks.  The most frustrating thing was that we had TONS of rain.  I would dare the worst day, there was at least 3-4in. in one hour.  It was CRAZY!  My back and front yards were completely under water.  Well, as you know, all that water has to go somewhere, and it did, my basement to be exact!  We ended up with over a foot of water in my basement.  When you have a 90+ year old house, the basement is not exactly water tight.  So I lost a lot of things.  I never dreamed of it flooding that bad, but then again I never would have thought it would have rained that much too.  Craziness!
Anyways, I made this card for a special young man.  He is my niece's boyfriend.  They have been together for over 3 years.  He just graduated HS, and she has 2 more years of HS to go.  Anyways, he has been in basic training for the Air Force since the first week of July.  He has become very special to us, and not just because he is my niece's boyfriend, but also because, my husband and I are also the youth leaders in our church, and he has been in our little youth group for the last year.  So we have blessed to get to know him really well in the past year.  Anyways, he has been very much in our prayers as he has been away.  We are looking forward to him graduating, and just being able to communicate with us all and how it all went.  We have all greatly missed him, too!  We know that it is so important to write letters, while he is there and even once he is complete and then moves on to where ever he may get stationed at.  So I wrote him a letter and made him this card, just letting him know of our excitement as of lately! So this is what I came up with for him.

I used:
Stampin' Up! Feeling Sentimental stamp set
DCWV The Natural Stack
Clockworks embossing folder
Black and white Twine
Stamped Sentiment is from Hobby Lobby

Thanks for looking and I hope you have a day

filled with many blessings!

 

Love Birds

Hello again!  Now I want to share with you what I have been busy doing.  I made this card for my amazingly, awesome, in-laws, 45th wedding anniversary.  They are so special to me and I am so blessed to have them in my life.  They are such a great Godly example of love and devotion for me and my family.  They love having their grandkids around them, (I have heard that having grandkids is one of the best "things" in life).  They love having family and friends around them too!  The best part is how much they love the Lord Jesus and are busy teaching us and other children how to do it, too.  So we are truly blessed to have them in our lives. 

I used:
Cricut Craft Room
Create a Critter Cricut Cartridge for the birdhouse cut (actually this is the dog house cut) and the heart cut
Stretch Your Imagination Cricut Cartridge for the birds
A Child's Year for the the word "LOVE"
K&Company Life's Journey Designer paper for the bird house base
K&Company Amy Butler Designer Paper for the bird on the right and the word LOVE
The Paper Studio Mirabelle Premium cardstock for the roof on the birdhouse
DCWV The Natural Stack for the brown bird
White Velum paper for the flowers
White gel pen for the little details
Silver and orange Stickles
Martha Stewart Hydrangea punch for the flowers
Ribbon from my stash

Well, thank you so much for coming over to my blog! 

 I hope you have a day filled with many special blessings!

 

Entered Challenge:

DL.ART THANKFUL THURSDAY JULY LINKY CHALLENGE Anything Goes

Slavery Awareness

Okay this is not my normal post, but I wanted to share/teach you all something that you may or may not know much about.
Last year, my oldest, who at the time was 15 years old, came to us and shared a concern/burden about Human Trafficking/Slavery, which she had come across in her reading of books. We then began to do some research ourselves, and were alarmed at the numbers and statisics and the childern and adults that were imprisioned in this.   Most of us are not aware that it still exists to day.  In fact it is worse today than it ever was before.  So let me give you some statisics and information about it.

Definition of Human TraffickingThe United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime defines human trafficking as recruiting, transporting, transferring, harboring or receiving a person through a use of force, coercion or other means for the purpose of exploiting them. In fact Slavery didn't end with the Civil war. In fact it has grown bigger than ever
There are more slaves today than in any other time in history.

•  More than 27 million people are trapped in slavery today.
• It's estimated that there are 200,000 people trapped in slavery in the United States, and 17,000 more will be trafficked in the next year.
• The average price for a slave in 1809 was $40,000 now it is only $90. 
• 50% of all victims of slavery are children. 80% of all victims of slavery are women.
• Human trafficking and sex slavery is a serious problem that exists right in our backyards. It is not something that only happens in other countries. There are 11,000 runaways a year in Ohio, and a runaway is likely to be forced into prostitution within 48 hours.  
• The three greatest risk factors for women being trafficked into the sex trade are: having an older boyfriend, dropping out of school, or being raped before the age of 18.
• Human trafficking — sexual, domestic, industrial and agricultural — is a $32 billion per year industry.
• Women and children make up 80 percent of all trafficking victims who are forced into the commercial sex trade.
• Nearly 2 million children are involved in the international commercial sex trade.
• Human trafficking occurs in 161 out of 192 countries.
• Up to 96 percent of women in prostitution want to escape but feel they can’t.
• In some countries, it is estimated that 70 percent of men purchase sex.
•  Pornography is a $96 billion per year industry.
•  1.5 million are trafficked in developed economies, the European Union and the United States.

Okay, that is just some of the statistics that I have come to learn and know.  It has all broken my heart and given me a new look on life and people.  We as a church and family and mostly our youth group want to make a difference in someones life, and make a change in our world by raising awareness in our community.  So last year we had a campaign to raise loose change.  Did you know, there is an estimated 10.5 billion dollars in loose change lying around in U.S. households.  That is alot of money that could change someones life!  Well, last year our little youth group of 4 kids raised $400.  We were so proud of them and we sent it in to International Justice Mission, who are Lawyers, investigators and aftercare professionals work with local officials to rescue victims, prosecute perpetrators and protect the poor.

We were so proud of them and amazed at how God worked through them.  They educated us as parents, then moved on to teaching our church family and are working at doing the same for our community. So I wanted to share some of the picutres of what they did last year and what they are doing this year! 
 

This is from last year, 2012, but it is of, my daughter and friend/cousin, raising awareness in our community.

 

 Our Counting Party of all the loose change we raised in 2012

$400 with such a small group!  God is so good!

 

Now this year they have almost filled a  gallon ice cream bucket up with loose change.

And this weekend is our big and last push, to raise money and awareness, for it!  So we made T-shirts with stencils that we made, using my cricut and a clear acetate sheet from an office suppy store. 

 

 Here is some of the girls working on painting their shirts!

 

 The red X is very wet and red!

 

Almost done!

All finished! 

Not bad for our first time doing fabric painting and making our own stencil!

There will be more pictures to follow in the near future!

 

"You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know."

               - William Wilberforce

 

Thanks for taking the time to read this and learning with us!

I hope you have a day filled with many blessings!

 

 

Cardmaking Beginings

I just want to share with you all, real quick, something special.  My daughter who is 11 has been making cards for people off and on through the years.  I usually give her my "scraps" and this includes a bunch of Cricut cuts that I have changed my mind about...most of them I struggle to even give to her.  But hey, it helps to keep down the pile of scraps for me.  She really enjoys getting them too!  It is with pure delight that she takes them from me.  Anyways, with those "scraps"  She goes and makes her own cards for people.  Since she has been doing this and enjoying it, people have bought her some supplies and paper of her own, like the Cuttlebug for kids, and her own paper...  She is now accumulating a nice "pile" of supplies of her own.  LOL  Anyways, when she made this card she was delighted at how well it turned out, and asked if I would take a picture of it.  So I knew that meant that she wanted me to share it with you all!  She gets a little bit of coaching from me but most of it she does on her own.  It gives her something constructive to do and gives Mommy some "quiet time".  It also helps teach her to think of others, and their likes and such.  Sometimes she is the one who reminds me of someones birthday/anniversary and such.  Anyways, here is what she came up with using some of my scraps! I think she did a pretty good job, too!

Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek at what WE have been busy doing!

Enjoy and leave her some love!

I hope you have a great day!

 

Seeing Double?

You may ask, am I seeing double?  Well, the answer is Yes and No!  These are kind of the same cards but a little different...can you figure out the differences before reading on?
Well, here is what is different.  First of all, the placement of the dots and stars are different, but the major differences is the back ground papers are opposite and the inside papers are different.  Lastly, the name inside is different, too!  Did you catch all those differences?  They are simple yet "fancy" on the inside!  The sky is the limit on the center pleated pop up card ideas.  I do believe it is one of my favorites to do and give to family and friends.  The element of the unexpected yet fun!
And yes the patriotic colors are done on purpose, because these birthdays are so close to America's Birthday.  So I figured it was only appropriate to make these cards that way!

I used:
Cricut Craft Room Basics Cartridge for all the circle and star cuts
A Child's Year Cricut Cartridge for the the Letter cuts inside
Red/White/Blue Cardstock
DCWV The Glitzy Glitter Stack for the stars
Ribbon from my stash
HB Sentiment from Hobby Lobby
CuttleBug Stars embossing folder
Dimensional tape

Thank you so much for stopping by and seeing all of the cards I have been busy doing!

I hope you have a great day!

Entered Challenge:
DL.ART THANKFUL THURSDAY CHALLENGE #112-- PATRIOTIC

White with a Little Splash of Color!

Hello!  Well, I am trying to do a little better at getting my cards done and out in the mail in time for the recipient to receive it on their birthday.  Unfortunately, my niece had to wait for this one...Hay, handmade cards take time to come up with and then to make them!  Right?  Or, Better late than never! 
Okay, enough excuses!  LOL  This card didn't take to long to make once I figured out what I was doing.  Simple and elegant!  I like the use of the negative space for the flower...I am thinking the next time that the background paper behind the flower should be colored and then the flower could be white...we shall see.

I used:
White Cardstock
Core'Dinations Pearls cardstock
Sweet Treats Cricut Cartridge for the flower cuts
A Child's Year Cricut Cartridge for the Scalloped edge for the HB Sentiment
Love's in the Air CuttleBug Embossing Folder
Martha Stewart Glitter
Pink//Yellow Stickles
Pink Satin Ribbon from my stash
Lace flowered Ribbon from my stash
HB Stamped Sentiment from Hobby Lobby

Thank you so much for coming by and checking

out my work! 

 I hope you have a wonderful day filled with many blessings!

 

It's Graduation Time!

Hello, I hope you all are doing well!  We are keeping busy with graduations and Father's day and open houses...and whatever else we can squeeze in between!  In between all the craziness I took the time to make some graduation cards!  They all turned out pretty good.  Some I have done the same design before, but it is a good one, with just different papers and colors.  So enjoy!

For the Tent fold card

I used:

The Paper Studio Graduation paper

Red/White Cardstock

Grad Sentiment Stamp from Hobby Lobby

Black Tassel from Hobby Lobby

Gold Glittered Brad from Stampin Up!

Here is a link to a good tutorial of a Vertical Tent Fold Card.

 

For the crisscross card

I used:

DCWV Glittered the All Dressed Up Stack for the BG paper

The Paper Studio Graduation Papers

White/Red Cardstock

Grad Sentiment stamp is from Hobby Lobby

Black stickled dots

 

For the Girly Owl

I used:

Create A Critter Critter Cricut Cartridge

DCWV The Natural Stack

Black/White/Orange Cardstock

Googly Eyes

Paper/felt flowers from my stash

Handmade tassel by me

White gel pen

 

Well that is it on the graduation cards for now!

Thank you so much for stopping by! 

Take some time and look around a little!

Have a fantastic day!

 

 

Birthday Couple!

Hello all!  I hope you all are doing well!  I know we have been VERY busy around here, and it just does not seem to let up.  Just trying to squeeze in a few things here and there, on top of all the other things going on in our crazy lives.  I love being busy, but sometimes it can get to you and you just need to rest a bit.  Anyway, part of my busy-ness is due to procrastination.  Then when you have procrastinated and others things get added to the pile suddenly you are really going nuts!  I am sure none of you have this problem!   Well, I just found out this week that my hubby's Uncle and his wife had their first wedding anniversary...so I quickly put together a card for them.  I was in such a hurry, that I failed to get a picture!  Humph!  Then I find out that both of their birthdays are coming up just a week later...so I have made them both a card and this time I got pictures!  Plus, we have had several graduates this year, and more birthdays and in between all of this is Father's Day cards.  Whew!  Anyways, here are the birthday cards for our Uncle and Aunt!

For the Cake in a stand
I used: 
DCWV The Sweet Stack
DCWV The Glitzy Glitter Stack for the blue background paper
White Cardstock for the punched edge
Happy Birthday Cuttlebug embossing folder
Stampin Up! Sweet of You stamp
Stampin Up! Crystal Effects for the dome over the cake
Red/Pink Stickles
HB sentiment stamp from my stash
Ribbons from my stash
Martha Stewart punch for the "Lacy" edge

 For the bicycle card
I used:
DCWV The Natural Stack for the background
Core'dinations Core Impressions: Timeless Collection
Off white cardstock
Cuttlebug Clockworks embossing folder
Stampin Up! Feeling Sentimental stamp of the bicycle
HB Sentiment from Hobby Lobby
I-Rock Gems
Twine
Tim Holtz Distress ink Corduroy

Well, thank you so much for stopping in! 

 I hope you have time to slow down

 and smell the roses in life!

 

Gaming Birthday!

Hello dear friends! So I have been busy like crazy and have failed to take the time to post any of my projects as of lately.  There are many more cards being made and in the process as I type this!  So stick with me through this next month as I will be posting many more...later!
Well, my nephew had his big 13th birthday about two weeks ago and yes I am just now getting around to sharing it with you all!
He is really big into the X-Box games and such and I always try to do a card that has to do with whatever they are interested at that time.  So naturally, I had to make something to do with the X-Box.  So this is what I came up with!  He seemed to love it, when he opened it he nodded his head and with a big grin, said, "Oh yeah! Now that is what I am talking about!" LOL

I used:
Plantin SchoolBook Cricut Cartridge
Cricut Craft Room Basics Cartridge
Recollections Comic Heros paper
Two shades of grey carstock
Sizzix Dots on a Line Embossing Folder
Colored brads
Stampin Up! Crystal Effects for the "X-Box Logo"
Action Wobble
The Sentiment is computer Generated
Brown bakers twine

Well, thank you for taking a peek at what

 I have been doing!

I hope you have a great day!

 

DL.ART Thankful Thursday Challenge-Anything Goes