Woo-HOO !!

Hey everyone:

What a great day - isn't it amazing how that extra day of rest can do a body good :)  I got up ready to go and have been busy all day long.

 

I just found out that I was a Top 3 winner over at Just Tracys Crafts challenge blog and am doing my happy dance (Jim and Patrick are looking at me like I'm crazy - well, you all know what I'm talking about).  Thank you all so much for voting my card a top 3 - it means so much to me.  I can't wait for the new challenge coming up tomorrow and hope you will be able to join in on the fun, I know I'll be back.

Everyone have a great evening.

Janet

Cat sympathy and three challenges

I took advantage of my day off and worked on many cards (a total of 12), 3 of which you are seeing here.  I was asked by a girl at work to make some pet sympathy cards and did the ones for a pet cat by using three separate sketch challenges:

  

 1)  The Sweetest Thing

 2)  CPS

3)  Stamping 411

I'll post the ones I did for dogs tomorrow.

Enjoy the rest of the evening.

Janet

Blog Candy

While perusing blogs this morning, came across some awesome blog candy.  I haven't done this in a while and thought, this is the perfect way to get back into trying this fun aspect of blogging.  Really Reasonable Ribbon is giving away this wonderful package and who wouldn't want to try for this.  Head over to their blog and find out how you could win.

Have a great Monday

Janet

Another new challenge blog ...

... well, it is for me.  I was blog surfing this morning and when I saw LeAnne's card using a challenge over at The Paper Players challenge blog, knew I had to head over.  I have been visiting LeAnne's blog for a while now and even though I had knew she was on the design team, never participated in any of their challenges before; however, it is being added to my list of challenges to participate in often.  The challenge for this week is "Anything Goes Challenge" and the name says it all.  

I have a friend whose little girl hasn't been feeling well lately and hope the colors and little bird will cheer her up.

Have a great Sunday and I hope you get a chance to head over to The Paper Players and participate in this fun challenge.

Janet

another great challenge

Good morning sunshine :)

Here is another great challenge I worked with this week.  Karen at The Sweetest Thing always provides us great challenges and I try to do do as many as possible and am glad I did this one - what fun.

This is a long weekend for us here in the US and I am looking forward to that extra day to sit back, enjoy and create all day long.

Hope you have a great one.

Janet

Hey ... an awesome award

Hey, it's me again :)  While we are sitting here in the stormy weather, I'm finally trying to catch up on some emails and blogging,  While checking my emails, my great friend Sonia, informed me that she had left me a special surprise on her blog, The Archiving Angel.  She is the sweetest thing and when you visit her blog, she not only has beautiful projects, but always posts such great tips and my favorite, "Fabulous Friday Finds" (I have gotten many a new toy by reading these posts).  Sonia had this award awaiting me and I was so pleased when I saw it - thank you so much Sonia, this means a lot to me. 

Now I must share 5 things about myself, 1 of which should be crafting related then pay it forward to 5 fabulous bloggers, so here goes:

My 5 Things:
1-I am the oldest of 5 children.

2-I am going to start digital scrapbooking this weekend and am looking forward to learning how this is done (maybe I will be able to catch up on my layouts)
3-My husband, Jim, and I have a Honda Goldwing Motorcycle and take long trips every other year with 5 other couples - this year we are going to the California coast (yes, we ride the motorcycle the whole trip).

4-I am a history fanatic and love to travel.

5-My husband is in law enforcement and I have worked in the legal field ever since leaving college.

My 5 Blog Friends:
1-Jennifer at Runs With Stamps
2-Karen at Diary of an ordinary Girl

3-Jill at A Life Well Crafted

4-Sue at Sue's Sentiments
5- Donna at Donna's Designs 

You must head over, say hello and start oohing and aahing - they are truly talented.

Have a great evening

Janet

Several challenges

Happy  Friday everyone - I hope you are looking forward to a nice weekend.

Here is a card I created by using several challenges:  1)  Color Throwdown for the color and 2) CPS for the sketch.

I hope you have a great weekend.

Janet

Happy Belated Birthday

Happy Monday, but I am so glad it's over :)

I have a friend from work who asked me to make her nephew a belated birthday card and as you probably know, I have a hard time coming up with ideas for masculine cards, but I believe it's even harder to do young men/boy cards.  A friend told us about a new blog she found today (thanks Ashley) and must tell you, it's great - it's called Lime Doodle (cute name, yuh).  As I was going through her blog, I came across a card that I knew would be great for what I was wanting to put together for Judy's nephew and must say, I like it.  I hope he does.

Well, I am now off to make some pet sympathy cards for a girl from work - I'll post those later on.

Enjoy your evening.

Janet

Just Tracys Crafts Challenge and Sweet Sunday Sketch

Happy Monday:

I hope you all had a nice weekend - I know it was a good one for me.  I didn't do very much, which was a nice change.  As I told you in a previous post, my great friend Jill is part of a challenge blog called Just Tracys Crafts Challenge and wanted to start my week off by showing you the card I made using their challenge "Words"; however, I also used the sketch challenge from Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge.  I really enjoy using the long cards because the allow you to add a little more than a regular A2 card and I had a fun time with this one.

I hope you are able to play along with either of these challenges.  Have a great Monday.

Janet

supplies:     Basic Grey Sugared patterned paper
                Papertrey Ink cardstock;
                EK Success swirl punch and EK Success scallop border punch
                Prima flowers
                JustRite Stampers Thinking of You
                Stampin' Up textured expressed embossing folder
                Maya Arts lace ribbon
                Papertrey Ink sweet blush ink

CPS sketch challenge

Good Sunday evening:

Well, I have been in the throws of creating again :)  HURRAY !!  I have a co-worker with a birthday tomorrow and thought CPS would give me a great sketch to work from and of course, wasn't disappointed when I looked at what sketch they provided us this morning.

Well, I'm off to do more creating.  I hope you all have a great evening.

Janet

supplies -   Basic Grey Oliver paper
                Tim Holtz Fired Brick Distress Ink
                Birthday sentiment - ??
                Queen & Co brads

New Challenge Blog

Hey everyone:

I just wanted to stop by real quick and let you know about a great challenge blog my friend Jill is a part of and after looking at the blog, it looks like it's going to be a lot of fun.  It is called Just Tracy's Craft Challenge - head on over and take a look at the party going on :)

I hope you are all doing well and will see you soon.

Janet

It's May already

Hey everyone:

This is the first time I have been on my blog in over a month and was very pleased to see my followers are still with me.  I thank you so much for that.  It has been a very hard few months and I appreciate your patience seeing as I may not be back for another one.  As you know, I went to Washington, DC back in February, which was great and when I came back, my father-in-law got sick and was admitted to the hospital at the beginning of March.  He had surgery on March 4th and 7 more surgeries after that to try and resolve his problem (his small intestines were blocked) but seeing this was dad's 5th time in the hospital for this same problem, they just couldn't fix it.  Dad fought and tried his best to make it through, but in the middle of March, he suffered a massive stroke and even though he kept trying, he was just to weak to pull through it.  Dad passed away last Thursday and even though we knew it was coming for a few weeks, it is still sad not having him up the hill from us.  Patrick and dad were very close and I have been so proud of Patrick because he has been very strong the past week - he has breakdowns from time to time, but he knows that dad is in heaven with his youngest son, Patrick and enjoying his company again.

I ask that you please keep my mother-in-law in your thoughts and prayers as this has been hard on her - she and dad were married for 57 years and she told me yesterday that she is so lonely (our daughter, Elizabeth, has been so kind and told her grandaddy before he passed that she is going to come and live with mom until she gets married after she graduates college), but we are hoping that with Elizabeth coming to stay with her will help - as well as the rest of the family.  We are all believers in that prayers are amazing and can get us through anything.  Jim and I have a lot of paperwork and other matters that need our attention this month, so I may not be on until June, but I am going to try and get back sooner than that.  I have just missed you guys so much and can't wait to get back.  I hope everyone is doing well and having a great time stamping and creating.

Thanks everyone and I send love to you all - you are all so important to me and keep me going.

Janet