A little hiatus from the card making

Hi friends, I thought I should take a few minutes to let you know there is a reason I have not been posting any cards...I have not been making any!  Earlier this month I had a house guest from Norway and then in the middle of her visit, my daughter was diagnosed with lymphoma...kind of threw us into a real whirlwind of helping out with kids, going to doctor's appointments etc.  My daughter and her family live right next door to us, so we can help out quite easily.  Actually the diagnosis is not conclusive until Friday when she sees the oncologist for the second time, and he reports on the biopsy, the CT scan, and the PET scan...but all signs are pointing to lymphoma, we just don't know which kind yet.  I feel I can't be in this creative room while there is a lot of anxiety and worry for my daughter.  Not only that, but I am madly knitting her a prayer shawl so she will have it on Friday when she gets the final word...therefore, not much time to stamp and cut and paste ...I need to be praying and knitting my fingers to the bone!

She has a wonderful support system...so many friends are praying for her from near and far.  Friends have signed up to bring meals all the way through November...so many blessings in her life, just really caring, genuine and kind ladies...it helps so much during this time...she is scared and nervous as is her husband.  Her older daughter, Ellie, 11 years old started a Caring Bridge page to talk about her mommy and she is doing a great job with posting feelings and thoughts about what she is experiencing right now.

So I don't really know when I will be back in the card making business...maybe once we know what the treatment will be, I may need the time in here to relieve some of my worries...for now...I will take a break and focus on my daughter.

Thank you for your concern and any prayers you send her way...her name is Dina (pronounced Dee- na)

My daughter and her beautiful family...Jalen, 5, Lily 9, Ellie 11

CAS-ual Fridays # 69

I made a set of four embossed cards for the CAS-ual Fridays post.  I embossed the largest flower from Beautiful Blooms and then stamped in the center and added a pearl.  All the cards say "thank you".   I am giving them to my church for an auction.  If you would like to join in CAS-ual Fridays challenge go HERE to be inspired and link up your card.  These cards are 3.5 x 5, the perfect size for writing a quick Thank You!

Mr. Bones' Halloween Spook Out - last card

One final card for the Mr. Bones' Halloween Spook Out...I inked up the 2009 Halloween Tags and the Wrought Iron Fence for this card...all PTI products..

Mr. Bones' Halloween Spook Out - another card

Pretty simple little card...all papers are PTI, the ghost is a Fiskars punch...the sentiment is from 2009 Halloween Tags.

Dynamic Duos #18 Card 3

I used the Daydreamer stamp set again, but added some pattern paper, ribbon and a button.  The colors are pure poppy and simply chartreuse.  I white embossed the sentiment.  Would you like to play along?  Go HERE to get the details...

Dynamic Duos #18 - Poppy Parade and Lucky Limeade Card # 2

I made another card for the The Dynamic Duos Challenge using simply chartreuse and pure poppy ink.  I used the Daydreamer stamp set from PTI and the sentiment is from Beautiful Blessings.  I embossed it with the linen impression plate.

Dynamic Duos #18 - Poppy Parade and Lucky Limeade

The colors for this weeks Dynamic Duos are pure poppy and simply chartreuse (in PTI colors!)  I used Heart 2 heart # 7, turning a new leaf and the sentiment from Heart 2 Heart # 3.  If you would like to play along, you still have time.  Go HERE to check it out!

Mr. Bones' Halloween Spook Out & Mojo Monday # 257

I checked out the Mojo Monday Blog for the first time and decided to use that sketch for another card for PTI and the Mr. Bones' Halloween Spook Out Blog Hop... GO HERE FOR THE MOJO MONDAY SKETCH.

I used 2009 Halloween tags for the spider with the web...and the little spider that is creeping along the top is from Tiny Treats:  Halloween.  The paper is all PTI...rustic cream, simply chartreuse, melon berry, and smokey shadow...a little bit of black polka dot washi tape above the chevron die...I embossed the spider and sentiment with Hero Arts silver embossing powder.

Here is the sketch:

Mr. Bones' Halloween Spook Day 3

This card took many twists and turns in the making...I first thought I would be leaving some hexagons blank and stamping in the center...and also cutting away some of the frame...it kind of took a life of its own and evolved into this and a few errors along the way and I am just calling it good...I don't think my 93 year old aunt will notice my little "bloopers"!!  the cat and pumpkin punches were just something I found in my "punch" drawer and decided to use them...the tag is from 2009 Halloween Tags.  I went with the black and orange theme this time with a pop of white for the cute little ghost!

Mr. Bones' Halloween Spook Day 2

I still had some cut pieces of hexagon from my first card, so I thought I would use them up, but change things a bit too.  Here I used a black card base and die cut the hexagon with kraft paper...then I filled in with my scraps...I stamped a spider hanging from a web and that is a Recollections wood mounted rubber stamp.  the Happy is from Think Big Series # 12 and the Halloween is from 2009 Halloween Tags...the spider and sentiments are embossed with silver Hero Arts embossing powder....it looks great in real life...icky spider!!

And if you want to join in all the fun for this Mr. Bones Halloween Spook day Blog Hop, then go HERE to play along!

Mr. Bones' Halloween Spook Out-Papertrey Style

Halloween will be here before you know it and in honor of this fun & festive holiday Papertrey Ink is joining Heather Nichols in a special inspirational event.  The Mr. Bones' Halloween Spook Out begins today and will continue every day for the next five days!  
Heather will be posting a new project featuring Mr. Bones each day, as well as revisiting some of her previous favorite Halloween projects. 

In the meantime, there is also a special Blog Hop being held at Paptertrey that you will not want to miss out on!   You have from now until September 5th (11:30pm EST) to add a Halloween themed project to the InLinkz on the PTI blog.  This could include spooky treat packaging, creepy cards, terrifying tags or anything else you can scare up!  Play along with us over the next five days and you will have an opportunity to win one of ten $10 gift certificates (since October is the 10th month of the year!).  So join us each day for all the Halloween fun & inspiration and get a head start on your projects for this spooktacular holiday! Go to Nichole's blog to check it all out.

So here is the first card I made for this blog hop.  If you are followers of mine, then you know that I send three cards out to my elderly aunts every month...these will be going to them!  And maybe I will have to add a couple more to my list!  I do have a 100 year old friend so I definitely think she deserves a special card for this occasion!

I used Happy Hexagons and die cut some random paper from PTI and the striped is just a random scrap I had from past Halloween's card makings...the tag is from 2009 Halloween Tags, I added some Dimensional Magic to the top of the cat to give it some dimension and added shine!