sympathy butterfly

Happy Thursday everyone! I hope you have a fantastic day all planned out for yourself! I'm looking forward to the National Day of Prayer gathering in our downtown. I hurt one of my thigh muscles when exercising on Wednesday so I have to give it a little break today, too.

So do yo think you can stand another sympathy card? I know I'm having a hard time making them. This is just a real simple card (that honestly I'm not sure if I like or not) that I used PTI's Background Basics Spots and Dots and Everyday Classics as well as the SU!'s Bigz Beautiful Butterflies Die on. I then made the antenna with some real thin wire and added a little body to it with pearls. The colors are PTI chocolate brown , spring moss, and then Palette Fresh Snow Ink. And the original idea for the layout came from a card that Nicki Estes made.

This is going to be short as I need to get moving with my day but I hope that your Thursday is wonderful!

limeLIGHT project for May

Morning everyone! How has your week been? I can hardly believe it is Wednesday already! This week is going by VERY quickly! Just a note that tomorrow is the National Day of Prayer. If you have time find out where you town is holding prayer and take some time to join them. I'll be joining our local group at the Rotary Pavilion and am looking forward to it.

This month limeLIGHT Papercrafts is highlighting...babies! There are so many fun things in the store to make your baby cards and gifts with. Check the bottom of my post to see what Mandy's current special is.

Now...onto my May limeLIGHT Papercrafts project. I will apologize ahead of time for my horrible pictures. I had to take my photos at night and even with editing the photos didn't turn out well.

Anyway, I decided a little gift box with card would be perfect for my limeLIGHT project and, OF COURSE, I had to use the new Pink Cat Studio set called Sweet Pea. Is it not adorable! Oh, my I love it! I also wanted to make sure that this set could be used for a boy or girl so I tried to use gender neutral colors such as green, yellow, and orange. The best paper for this would be, of course, Basic Grey's Lime Rickey. It is bright and cute all at the same time. Inside I just placed some super cute, super soft bibs that I got at my local store inside my box and believe it or not they are a really pretty soft green color that compliments the box perfectly. All in all this is a super cute (if I do say so myself) presentation for a fun little baby gift!

Don't forget about Mandy's fun special...purchase $35 from the store (before shipping) and choose a Shimmerz Paint for FREE! And, with all the wonderful projects from the design team I'm sure there will be plenty for you to want to get your hands on! Be sure to check out the following blogs...JenMarie, Lisa, Ryann, Lee, Amy, and of course, the limeLIGHT blog.

Well, I hope you all have a great Wednesday! I'll see ya tomorrow!

praying for you

Morning everyone! Go ahead...say it...awww...that dog sure is cute?

Believe it or not this is a sympathy card. One of the people that I will be sending a sympathy card to is a guy so I wanted to be sure to make the card something he could relate to. Well, this should do it. You see the recipient of this card have a yellow lab and I'm sure while his owner is gone he is just waiting for his dad to get home just like this guy looks like he is. (did that makes sense? did you get what I meant?)

I started work on my limeLIGHT project tomorrow and it is currently kicking my hiney! I just can't quite get it the way I want but I'm sure I'll pull it together today AND I think you are going to like it. Want a hint what we will be focusing on? Okay...they are little and cute. I've said enough. I hope you'll stop back tomorrow to see my project! Oh, and check out this special Mandy has. Purchase any $35 worth of products and you'll get a FREE jar of Shimmerz Paint. Very cool, huh? Go check it out!

With all that...I'll catch ya later!

Card deets:
Stamps: For Father, PTI Wishing You
Ink: Palette Burnt Umber
Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, So Saffron, PTI White, SU! DSP Pack (hostess)
Accessories: Cuttlebug embossing folder, String, Dimensionals, Big Shot

corner bookmark

Morning everyone! I hope your weekend was a good one! We are all well here. To those of you that commented on my Saturday post...thank you. I appreciate your kind words...more than you can imagine!

Onto today's post. In order to give you a break from the sympathy cards I've been making I thought I'd make a corner bookmark to show you. I've been wanting to make one for my Bible study workbook for sometime now so I decided to put Dawn's tutorial on and get to work. The results? I LOVE it! Okay, minus my coloring job as it isn't the best I've ever done so ignore that, k? I used the SU! set Dreams du Jour for the image and Bella Rose designer paper to make this bookmark.

Basically...this is a 6"x6" piece of paper with an easy couple of folds and, for mine, decorated with designer series paper and a stamped image.

Today is the funeral for my friend Steve so when you have a moment please say a prayer for the Cameron family. I know they will all appreciate it.

This week on Wednesday is the May limeLIGHT Papercrafts big project reveal. I actually haven't started it yet...well, I have...in my head so I'm excited to get it started. Be sure to check back! Go HERE to see the wonderful special that Mandy has going on right now. Want a hint? It is about something we all love!

Alright...go...have a super day everyone.

Project deets:
Stamps: Dreams du Jour
Ink: Kiwi Kiss, Textured, Pink Piourette, Riding Hood Red
Cardstock: Kiwi Kiss, Pink Pirouette, White, Riding Hood Red
Accessories: White Gel Pen, Glitter, Sticky Tape, Blender Pen

with sympathy

Morning friends. This has been a rough week for some of the people that I care about. I have to make four sympathy cards. Well...really I'm going to make seven total but I'm not sure I will show you all of them. Anyway, today I have two that I'm going to show you.

When I was in 3rd grade my family and I moved to a house just outside the Milton/Edgerton WI area. The house sat at the front of a rather large out in the country cul-de-sac and just behind and off to the right a little sat a house that I was soon to become familiar with. The Cameron's lived there. My mom and Pat "met" the day my mom sent me to the Cameron's house to borrow a cup of sugar (true story). My mom and dad and the Cameron's became fast friends. Interestingly when my grandmother was (my mom's mom) sick, Pat's mother was ill at the same time. I remember babysitting for Scott, Julie, and Kelli when I was a teenager. Although I had grown apart from the Cameron's over my adult years Kelli and I had recently begun to connect again and it has been amazing to get to know her again. Anyway, all this to tell you that Steve, the head of the Cameron family, died suddenly on Thursday. So, the card on the right will go to Pat. I will also be making separate cards for the kids but am not rushing right now as the visitation is today and funeral tomorrow so I can't get them there before those events. I'll get them out next week for sure though. If you care to know about Steve I have a link to his obituary HERE.

The card to the left will be heading to a woman at my church whose 32 year old granddaughter died of a brain aneurysm last weekend. Marcy left behind a husband and four beautiful girls (13, 9 and 3 year old twins). I had just talked with Marcy a couple of weeks ago and honestly was just shocked when I heard the news. If you'd like to know more about her you can see her obituary HERE.

While I know this post is already a little long I just want to mention a book that I have here at home. It is called What to Say. 52 Positive Ways to Show Christian Sympathy to Those Who Grieve. Why mention this book? Because, every time there is loss of some sort in my life a certain person in my life says something that may seem comforting but in reality is "bad form" if you will. Upon initial contact with the grieving person the best thing you can say is simply..."I'm so sorry for your loss"...then if you would like,"would it be okay if I give you a hug?". That is it...nothing else is needed at that time. You can tell them "I'll just be over here for a while." If they want to talk with you...they will and it is at that time that you need to sit and listen. Say nothing. Listen. Listen to "the story" again and again. Now...say these three phrases again and again until they are committed to your heart. Ready?

Hug them, hang around, hush!
Hug them,_____ around, hush!
Hug them, ____around, ___!
Commit them to memory:
____ them, ____around, ____!

I really hope that someone will get something from this part of my post. These tips for the initial contact are really right on center. The book I mentioned above has 52 ways to show you care and has been an invaluable resource for me. I hope you will take a look at it.

So, I'm sorry for the mostly sad post today but you get my posts as my life goes and sometimes sorrow comes in waves...just like happiness. Take some time to hug your loved ones today!

send over sunshine

Happy Friday morning! Woohoo...I'm so glad the weekend is almost here!

Awhile back I showed you guys a card I made for a one on one swap that I am in to bring sunshine into each others lives during a gloomy spring here. Anyway, I finally finished my gift for my SOS sister. I made her a "from the desk of" ensemble. It includes this wonderful holder (template from PTI), four cards with envelopes, some flower seeds, a band aid tin (with stamps and address labels inside), and some of those wonderful, new gourmet M&M's.

Most of the supplies I used are from Papertrey Ink except the letters for the name plate. For that I used a Just Rite stamper. Oh, and the flowers wrapping around the ribbon are from SU!'s Filigree brads set.

The card set includes four cards that look just like the card you see here but all have different sentiments.

I truly hope that my SOS sister likes this! I hope you will stop back tomorrow. I have a pretty card to show you that I, unfortunately, had to make for a friend who just lost a family member. I actually have two more sympathy cards to make today as well as plan a little Mother's Day card for an impromptu class tonight. Yikes!

So...you all have a super Friday! See you later! *Yay...my box got a shout out on Susanna Boyd's blog today. Exciting!*

Project deets:
Stamps: Just Rite Stamper, PTI Everyday Classics
Ink: Palette Burnt Umber, Melon Berry
Paper/card stock: PTI Dark Chocolate, PTI Green Tea Leaves, PTI Bitty Dot Basics
Accessories: PTI Dark Chocolate Satin Ribbons, SU! Filigree Brads, Band Aid Tin, Melon Berry Twill Ribbon, PTI Dark Chocolate Buttons, Kaisercraft Silver Rhinestones