Glitterbees Challenge Thankful

Hello Everyone!

Today I have a very special card to share with you! It is for the Glitterbees Challenge to use Teal, Peach and Orange hosted by Amy! Even more than the challenge, this card represents how thankful I am that a turn of events this week had a blessed outcome!

This past weekend my girls' father and my former husband suffered a heart attack. He made it to the hospital and after a battery of tests, it was found he had blockage in almost ninety percent of his arteries. This is a retired US Marine with a family history of heart disease. The sheer fact he made it through the attack was miraculous! He had quadruple bypass surgery on Wednesday and came through with his usual Marine style. Surgery was completed early with a very short recovery time and he was off the heart and lung machines, breathing tube out, sitting up and talking in less than three hours! Even though we are no longer married, we share two wonderful girls and he is very important to our lives. Needless to say, there was much prayer going on and stress levels were still high. We are all blessed that God's grace and mercy and healing are evident in our lives. That is why this card is even more special to me. I am so thankful for the blessings and love that covers me, my family, my friends, and, yes, even the man I was once married to. Thank you for letting me share this story with you and for all the prayers and good thoughts that came from my wonderful blogging friends!

I started with the deep orange card base and adhered DP stock from the DCWV Fun in the Sun Stack. I was a little perturbed that the base stock peeled even though it was scored. So, plan B was to distress all the edges! I was actually happy with the look afterwords. I punched an accent flower and added a button to the center. I also added buttons to the flowers printed on the DP stock. I used dental floss for thread in the buttons. I stamped the "Thankful" sentiment with a Fiskars stamp, which is a candy prize from Ms. Loretta, in Chestnut Roan Chalk ink.

I haven't decided what I am going to do with this card yet. My first thought (and the one I will probably go with) is to display it in my craft room as a constant reminder of all I have to be thankful for!

Sorry for the long post! I don't usually like to share too much personal info here, but I felt I needed to share this with you and maybe remind us all again of the many blessings we share in our daily lives! I hope you will visit again soon as I am planning a much more festive post the next time!! Have an awesome weekend and hug those you love with a little more gusto, OK??

Blessings to you,
Vicki

Glitterbees Challenge Operation Write Home

Hello Everyone! Hope you are having a great weekend!

Our Glitterbees Blog Group has another challenge for us hosted by Cindy! Cindy's challenge was to make a card for Operation Write Home with a Father's Day theme. OWH is a wonderful organization that gathers handmade cards and sends them to our troops. It was an honor to make a card for this cause!

I started with a maroon card base and layered DP. I stamped the pocket watch with Walnut Stain ink, cut it out and added a brad for the watch arms. The sentiment is also stamped in Walnut Stain and cut out with Nesties. I added mini brads to the corners for a little extra oomph! A fairly simple card but one I think a soldier would like to send. I sure hope so!

I am so happy you dropped by today! I hope you will come back often! It's been a dry spell for me, but I think I have some juices flowing again! I always appreciate your comments and ideas so please let me know you were here!

Blessings to you,
Vicki

Thank You Ms. Loretta!

Greetings! Hope everyone is having a great weekend! We are finally seeing some sunshine!

Today I want to share some pics of the wonderful blessings I received from an awesome blogging friend, Loretta! Loretta is also a Glitterbee and has a fantastic blog where she shares her many talents and craft projects!

I was thrilled when the package arrived! So many goodies! You rock, Loretta! Let's see....where to begin??? There was a package of holiday ribbon, a bag of dimensionals, a huge roll of red sticky tape, a planner, a beautiful butterfly keyring, a tea light candle lollipop, Fiskars Cameo Ovations stamps, Memory Boutique frames, corners and hat pins, Making Memories frame, a set of scrapbooking embellishments, and Making Memories Sabrina ribbon slides! Whew!! What a haul!! Thank you again, Loretta, for your generous gifts!

I so appreciate the wonderful blogging friends I have made. I am honored to be in groups of bloggers that share not only their creative talent but also share themselves and their time! This has been such a rewarding experience!

I am off now to play in my craft room! Lots of inspiration to get me jumpstarted!

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you will come by often! I wish all of you...

Bountiful Blessings,
Vicki

Glitterbees Challenge

Hello and Happy Monday! Hope everyone had a great weekend and got to share some great time with their Valentine!

I have the honor to be hostess for the Glitterbess challenge this time around! The card today is my interpretation of our next challenge! The challenge is to make a shaped card! However, the shape can be anything but a square or rectangle!! That means it can be a circle, a diamond, an apple, a car....wherever your mind and inspiration lead you! There are some great shape cards on Mel Stampz under Templates, on Google search, as well as YouTube.

My card uses the Martha Stewart resized flower templates from Mel's blog. There are five different size flowers and I layered them all. I started with the largest and cut it on the fold to form the card base in white card stock. The other layers are cut from wallpaper. The green layers are edged with a gel pen. The floral layers are edged with Stickles. The card layer is edged on top with sea green bead trim. The back of the card is edged with lace trim. I also cut another large flower to use on back to cover the lace edge. Gluing the trims was a bit tricky and took some drying time, but the results were worth it! All the layers are attached with glue dots. The final touch is an antique button added to the center of the card.

This card was made for a lady very dear to me! Just being near her makes my heart sing! She makes my world a much better place to be! And, although her birthday isn't until March, I wanted to share her card with you now. Don't worry! Mom doesn't do computers or visit blogs!! LOL!!

I hope you enjoyed what you have seen here today and you will join us in this challenge! You can visit our challenge blog and link your card. We would love to see what you have created! You have until the end of February to post your card for this challenge. We have new challenges the first and the fifteenth of each month! You don't have to be a Glitterbee to participate so come on over and join us!

Thank you so much for your visit today! It is always so special when you drop by! We'll keep the light on for ya! (But don't look for the motel sign...look for the creeks and cats!!)

Blessings to you,
Vicki

Glitterbees Challenge Neverending Card

Greetings Everyone!

I have a fun Glitterbees challenge card for you today! Loretta is our hostess for this challenge and she asked us to make a neverending card! I have seen these all over the web but this is my first attempt! So here goes...!

I decided to make a Valentine for all the Ladies in the Glitterbees Blog Group on SCS! These ladies have become dear friends and I admire all their talent! Hope you enjoy it!

I started with four pieces of white card stock cut at 3"x 6". I scored all four pieces vertically at
1 1/2". Then I scored all four pieces horizontally at 1 1/2 " from each end. I laid two pieces butted together vertically on my work desk and added DS tape to all four corners. Then I took the other two pieces and layered them on top going horizontally. Next I folded on all the score lines and burnished them well with a bone folder. Now I had my card base and I could start having some fun! I stamped the background on all folds with a heart stamp. For the front, I used my bee stamp and my SU Love Ya! The Love Ya images I heat embossed with clear powder. I crimped red card stock and punched out four hearts, turning the paper so the lines of the crimp go different ways. I punched out the small hearts and added them with 2way glue. For the next fold, I stamped bee mine and added the sentiment and two foam hearts. All the bees are colored with Prisma pencils. For fold #3, I stamped hearts on the four center panels and added glittered hearts. I also stamped love bugs on four panels. On fold #4, I used the bee stamp and Love Ya stamp again. I finished the back fold with the Love bug stamp.

I was thrilled when my stamped images and the sentiment came out going in the right directions!! I had visions of upside down hearts and bees flying backwards!!

I want to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day! A special wish for love and laughter to my Glitterbee girls! You are all awesome!

Thank you for spending some time here today and sharing in our challenge! You can participate, too, if you like! Just add your post to Mr. Linky on our challenge blog! We will also have a new challenge coming up on February 15th! Hope you will join us!

Blessings to you,
Vicki

Glitterbees Challenge You Bless Me

Hello Friends!

Today's post is the challenge for the Glitterbees Blog Group! We were to use green, pink and blue in our project. I went a step further and challenged myself to make my first acrylic card! Whew! Definitely a learning experience! Still another challenge was trying to photograph it! I have so much to learn! I have to say, however, that I am glad I tried it. I will try it again someday, too, but not this week!!

I started with a transparency sheet and cut it to a standard card base. I then scored it and folded it in half. Now's when the fun started! I used a 1 1/2 " and a 2" scallop punch to cut circles from embossed card stock. I had the layout in my mind but covering the adhesive was going to be tricky. I went back to my old friends, glue dots, and managed to get the circles where I wanted them. I used a white brad for the center of the flower and adhered it the same way. The white scallop you see in the background is an oval punched piece which I adhered to the back side of the card. This gave me a place to add a greeting and signature. I used my stampamajig to line up the sentiment which is stamped with black StazOn ink. The ribbon is from Basic Grey and I used my glue dots once again. The layout is not my favorite but it let me learn about working with the acrylic without too much stress!
Since I know enough about photography to fill a thimble with your thumb in it, I guess my hardest challenge was the picture. I tried several backgrounds and angles but I just couldn't get the outline of the card to be seen. I comforted myself with the fact that it is supposed to be CLEAR and to go with my best shot! You photographers out there can feel free to leave your pity remarks in the comments! I'm a big girl...I can take it!!

Thanks so much for coming to visit today and sharing my learning experience! Each of you is special to me and YOU BLESS ME! Please come back by when you can. Next time, I may even try an acrylic album!! .........Nah!

Blessings to you,
Vicki

Glitterbees Challenge Valentines Are For Friends

Hello and Welcome!

Today I would like to share our first Glitterbees Blog Group Challenge! This one was a doozy for me but I had fun with it!

I started with a white card stock card base and stamped a background with a flourished swirls roller. I then added the pink layer. Next came a piece of white card stock stamped in black ink. I stamped the sentiment in SU black craft ink and heat embossed it. I punched it out with a McGill deckle square punch and layered it to a red deckle edge square. These are raised on dimensionals. I added a red organdy bow and the black pearls for accent. I also deckled the outer edges of the card.

I already have someone in mind to send this card to. Hope they like it!

Thanks so much for your visit today and I hope it is just one of many! Be sure to check out the other Glitterbees versions of this challenge on our challenge blog here. So much talent in this group!! You can also join us if you like and post your card with Mr. Linky!

See you again soon!
Blessings to you,
Vicki