A White on White Christmas Card

I am sitting in the airport lounge in Atlanta, Georgia waiting for my flight to Barcelona to call with over two hours to wait I decided it was a good time to post a picture I took yesterday of another card for the Christmas Card Club. If you email me or one of the other members listed on my side bar and we can tell you how you too can have fun making Christmas cards all year and stay on top of the homemade Christmas!! We start over in January for next year so there is still time to come play with us.
This card was due earlier in the month (I am still playing catch up) and this challenge hostess was Margaret who wanted everyone to do an all white card with a little sparkle. Here is my card.


It was a little harder to do then what I originally thought it would be and photographing it was a nightmare. The flash would change the diamond Stickles to a greenish blue color and it I used crystal Stickles it turned gold etc etc. If I didn't use flash it came out yellowish and I couldn't fix that with Photoshop! I still think it is a nice card. What do you think?

Materials list:

Whisper White Card stock from Stampin'Up!(SU!)
SU! tinsel ribbon
SU! whisper white seam binding
SU! Going Gray ink pad
Tim Holtz Winter Wonder die and Snow Flurries Texture Fade
Tim Holtz Merry Christmas STamp
Stickles
Pearl embellies

Halloween ATC and ATC Challenges entry

I was web surfing the other day and came across a couple challenges that I felt really motivated by and today I want to share another project I made for a swap and the ATC Challenges Blog challenge

Yesterday I posted a Christmas card and today I am posting an ATC that is for Halloween. I am having a blast in my own little world and bouncing around between holidays, birthdays and getting gifts ready to take overseas when I go to Spain!

This challenge was an ATC for What Little Boys are made of or Anything Goes. I thought that is ATC fit the bill for something a little boy would like and enjoy.
I thought a little boy would like it cause it is creepy enough with the spider dangle and the big eyed owl but not to scarey that it would keep him up at night! Fun!

Materials list:
Tim Holtz ATC die
Tim Holtz Seasonal Paper Stack
Distress inks and stains: Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Black Soot
Stamp'Up! Very Vanilla card stock
SU corner punch
Lion Brand Fun Fibers
Satin 1/4" ribbon
fun spider charm

Playing catch up and A House Mouse Challenge Card!

I have been spending a lot of time in my craft room since I came home from Virginia last week. I really missed being around all my stuff and in my comfortable space making cards and doing my thing. I have been pretty productive and have surprised myself in how many things I have made. Today I want to share a card I made for the Christmas Card Club I am part of. Every two weeks someone in the club will name a challenge and everyone gets busy and makes a card to meet the challenge. If you would like more info about the club (we do Christmas cards year round) and how to join check out the side bar and contact any of us to get more information or to join us in the fun!

I am starting to get caught up and this challenge was actually due about a month ago. On this week the challenge was called by Sylvie to make a card with mistletoe on it! I remembered this House Mouse Clear Christmas Stamp set that has one stamp that has mistletoe on it and viola here is my card.

Materials list:

House Mouse & Friends Clear Christmas Stamps
Merry Christmas Stamp from Tim Holtz
Spellbinders circle and scalloped circle
Card stock: Stampin'Up! Real Red, Garden Green, Very Vanilla
Paper: Echo Park Merry Christmas
Stickles: Christmas Red
Memento ink: Black\
Distress ink: Vintage Photo
Copics
Red Gems and pearls from the stash drawer

Bewitching Ride

I have been spending a lot of time in my craft room this weekend and I have a few things I would like to share with you. I don't want to overwhelm with you a long post and lots of pics so will limit it today to a couple of pictures of a tag I made for a swap on {{creativeblock-stampersanonymous}} blog a Yahoo group. I couldn't make up my mind which way I wanted the witch to face and fly so I did some of each. My DH was curious about the 'furry stuff' on the tag top but just couldn't get why I added it to the tags. Told him I thought it was cute and he said, "that's what counts then!" See why I love the dude!




I used several different techniques on this tag and I may use it in a class next month but I am not quite sure yet. I masked the moon on the tag then covered it and distress inked around the tag. I like the moon color better on the top tag because it is a brighter yellow. The bottom of the tag has an image embossed with a Tim Holtz texture fade. I think pretty much all the products used on these tags are from Tim Holtz, Ideology, and Ranger ink with a few exceptions. Check out the materials list at the bottom for a list of products used.





Materials list:

Tim Holtz/Sizzix dies: Tag Die, and Bewitching Hour
Tim Holtz Texture Fades: Cobwebs and Poison
Tim Holtz/StampersAnonymous stamps: Happy Halloween
Ranger Distress Inks: black soot, scattered straw, mustard seed, vintage photo
Ranger Distress Stickles: Rock Candy
Tim Holtz Grunge Board
Card Stock: Stampin'Up! Very Vanilla, Basic Black, More Mustard
Stampin' Up! More Mustard Grogain ribbon
Lion Brand Fancy Fur

52 Weeks of Mail

Do you like receiving personal, hand-written cards and letters?

Do you find it difficult to stay in touch with people because of your busy life?

The Etsy Greeting Team has come up with a fabulous way to keep in touch with your friends and loved ones in an intentional way....with 52 Weeks of Mail:
52 Weeks of Mail is designed to encourage people to commit to sending at LEAST one card or letter a week, for the next year! 52 Weeks of Mail starts on October 9th, 2011 and goes through October 7th, 2012. We are asking that you commit to doing this, and sticking with it!

Please feel free to blog about this, Tweet about it, post it on Facebook, and just spread the word as far as you can! We have a Facebook page, and we are trying to get 1000 likes by the end of September. Please help us reach this goal by letting your friends know about 52 Weeks of Mail.

If you are looking for some beautiful handmade cards to send, please visit Etsy and check out the abundance of offerings from the EtsyGreetingsTeam!

I can remember when I was younger I used to wait for the postman to come and I would run to the mail box in hopes that someone cared enough to send me a letter or a card. I know now days that we tend to email or text message and I hear a lot more from people I know and care about but I still like to get mail in my mailbox. I am committing to one card a week for the next 52 weeks. Send me your address at okienurse@gmail.com and I will send you a card sometime in the next 52 weeks if you would like to get mail in your mailbox that is fun and not a bill or advertisement!

A crafty post

Happy WOYWW #120...It has been a busy week for me trying to get caught up around the house since coming home from Virginia. I don't have a whole lot of time before we leave for Spain and we will be gone a month and there is so much to be done. Being busy definitely makes time seem to go faster. If you would like to find out more about what WOYWW is check out Stamping Ground and Julia the Queen of Snoop to fill you in!

I am a member of several online groups of crafty individuals who share a joint like of of art. I don't limit myself to just one style and love grunge, shabby chic, artsy fartsy...technical term, and cutesy stuff. Heck I do whatever rocks my boat at that point in time. The reason I bring this up is I got into a 'conversation' with an artist friend today about the type of art I do and the art my daughter and some of her friends do...my daughter has a degree in fiber arts and painting from the University of Oklahoma and knitted a wall hanging as a project in one of her classes, they called it art!...I digress. Anyway this friend tells me that what I do is not really art but crafts. Hmmmm...I wasn't really happy with her when she told me that my ATC, art journals, chipboard books, canvas/paper craft decor etc were not in the strictest sense considered art. I tried to point out that I am sure the surrealists, impressionists etc were told they weren't artist either cause everything doesn't look real. Long story short (cause there was a lot more to it!!) we decided to agree to disagree. What do you think? Do we do art or crafts?

I finally got to spend some time doing some fun things and getting inky after what seemed like weeks away from it. Okay here is what you have been waiting for... a picture of my desk this week.
I am working on a tag for a swap at the{creative-block StampersAnonymous} group on Yahoo. I am using embossing folders and die cuts in addition to stamps and ink to create a Halloween theme.

I finished a fall ATC this past week for another swap on the same group and thought I would share it with you also. It was suppose to be fall colors and I used an emboss resist and then stamped a tree and embossed it. Lots of fun techniques went into making it.

My materials list:
Tim Holtz ATC Die
Tim Holtz Stamps, Falling leaves, tickets, Winter Scene tree
Distress Ink Pads, Walnut Stain, Fired Brick, Faded Jeans, Antique Photo
Distress Stickles Frayed Burlap and Rock Candy
Distress Embossing powder, Walnut Stain
Ideology tiny paper clips
Yarn fibers and leaf and flower brads
Martha Stewart bird punch
Stampin Up! very vanilla and Not Quite Navy card stock

WOYWW #119 Couple more of the Grandaughters and a call for some help!

I couldn't not participate in the WOYWW this week even if I am halfway through to the next week. So Happy Saturday everyone! I didn't get home from Virginia until late Thursday and spent Friday recovering from the trip. If you wonder what it is that I am not wanting to miss then check out What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday at Julia Dunnit's blog Stamping Ground!

Thought I would share a couple more pictures of the favorite granddaughters! (We only have two so I am not showing favoritism here!)
I love this picture of Teresa mowing the yard with Dada! Such a big help!

Grandpa holding his newest granddaughter!
Teresa didn't want to share the chair with Momma!
Chad found out the Hannah Banana loves the noise of the vacuum cleaner to the point it makes her stop crying and go to sleep...now what's that all about? Is that a calculating grin as to how to utilize the vacuum to his advantage?
Last hug and a goodbye from Teresa as Gamma and Grandpa leave to go home!

Okay here is the reason for my cry for help! Since I am coming really close to 200 blog posts this year I thought that I might share some of the stash in my craft room and was looking for some ideas on what I could share. I want to be able to share with all my friends and readers here in the states and world wide so it can't weigh a ton because shipping is really costly. Any thoughts or ideas? Leave me a comment and let me know.

I promise to start posting some more crafty goodness tomorrow but I have enjoyed sharing the pics the past couple weeks and letting you get to know me and my family. They are the reason for my life!

Memories of 4/19/1995 and 9/11/01

I normally don't write on this blog about my feeling or family events but this week seems to be causing a change in how I am utilizing the blog. I have read several blogs that have put out their thoughts about what they were doing on 9//11/01 and how they handled it and these past 10 years. I was angry then and I think I am still angry about it today.

I can remember how I felt in the early 1990's when traveling about in the UK we had heard that the train station on the Brighton line had a bomber! I was very glib saying that it would never happen in the US! I was soon made aware of how glib the comment had been when Ruby Ridge occurred in Idaho in 1992, then Waco in 1993, followed by the first World Trade center car bombing also in 1993. The next 10 years would show me that things could and would definitely get worse in my world.

It just seemed that the world was in a spin and that all that I had known and was comfortable with in the past had just changed in puffs of smoke. I lived in Oklahoma and we are very 'country' where I live...I didn't lock cars or doors cause no one would harm me or mine. I owned a gun but it wasn't be cause of fear in humans doing me wrong but because it was something we did 'just in case a snake or wild critter came around!' In 1995, April 19, I was a nurse in the ICU when the Alfred P. Murrah Federal building in Oklahoma City, OK was bombed, that was less than 20 miles from where I live in Norman, and brought home that terrorism had most definitely come to my corner of the world. I was called to come to work and some of us got the unit ready to take in patients and some of us went to the bombing site to stabilize and ship patients. After about a half hour we were ready for an influx of patients but when none came we realized the death toll would be high, 168 died due to terrorism that day (19 were small children.) The nurses and doctors returning that day were so quiet that everyone was afraid to ask what they had done and seen. It came my turn to visit the site and the sights and sounds and smells may be burned into my brain forever and I still can't talk about it.

On May 3, 1999 my second brush with a major disaster occurred when we had a major tornado out break that killed 40 people in central Oklahoma that day, some as close as 7 miles from me. There were more then 60 tornadoes that day and more than 50 people died in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Tennessee that day. I worked ER and wished I could have been anywhere else. The injured people started rolling in and we worked for hours to get them stabilized and transported to hospitals that could handle them when we couldn't. I had worked all day and then through out the night until relief staff could come in. Once again I don't think I will ever be able to forget what happened that day and night. I held hands and cried right along with my patients when they found out their loved ones hadn't been as fortunate as they were and laughed and cheered when families were reunited.

When 9/11/01 occurred I was devastated I thought that the world had taken leave of its senses and gone even crazier! Today we have been watching the reruns of footage from that day and I hope no one ever forgets the craziness that is in the world! My heart is heavy for the families that 10 years later still hope that their love ones will come home cause nothing was ever found to prove that they died. Almost 3,000 people died in the attacks. I cry when I think of the first responders going through a plethora of problems now with their medical issues that the government and insurance companies refuse to believe came from their inhaling all dust and debris from those buildings. The non-dead victims that walk in a personal hell for the rest of their lives cause they watched friends and family die in the attacks. The children that never got to know their Mothers and Fathers due to some zealot deciding to 'show the US' they had issues with our government.

I can prepare for weather but I can't prepare for the sickness that is inherent in the religious zealots of the world. I hear some of the right wing Republicans in the USA talking their craziness in this pre-election year and I wonder if they can hear their own voices and what they are saying? They don't sound much different then the Bin Laden and zealots that caused all the deaths with the 4/29/1995 bombing or the 9/11/01 plane crashes. I am tired of hearing the politicians asking for my vote also asking me to pray to get this or that done in my state and country. I don't want religion to play into my government because I have seen what happens when governments and individuals that are run by religion are put into power and I don't want any part of that. I resent my freedoms being taken away by those people and the US Homeland Security so they can protect me from what THEY perceive as being harmful to me. I resent the loss of innocence that all the children have had to give up. Hell, I resent having to give up my own innocence in the face of all this craziness!

WOYWW #118 and Hannah

I don't have a desk to share with your or any finished projects...because I forgot to schedule the posts before I left so I don't have anything crafty to share with you today. I do miss my desk and I do miss my art but I am happy to say that I am not at home this week but in Virginia Beach, Virginia where my new granddaughter was born this past Saturday morning. Chuck and I left home in Oklahoma on Thursday and traveled almost 1,400 miles to arrive about 3 hours before the baby was born. I posted some pics on the previous post of the birthing and thought that I would add a few more from today!

This is me with Hannah!Hannah was born 3 weeks premature but she is one of the most alert babies I have been around and has spent a good deal of time just lying around checking things out. Hannah reminds me of a doll I had when I was a girl.

This is Mom and Dad with Hannah:


Grandpa with Dad and baby:


Not to be left out since she wouldn't pose in these pictures are a couple pics of big sister Teresa!
Teresa trying to get rice to stay on a fork:


Teresa figuring out how to operate Granddad's camera!

I hope to be able to visit a few desks this week and look forward to seeing what everyone is doing. If you wonder what this is all about and would like to see whats on desks all around the world go visit with Julia the Queen Bee of Snoop at Stamping Ground.

My new Grandaughter

We are currently at my son Chad's house in Virginia Beach, Virginia for the birthing of my granddaughter. We left Oklahoma on Thursday morning and traveled east stopping over night east of Memphis, Tennessee. When we got up on Friday our son called to let us know that our daughter-in-law, Candice, seemed to be in pre-labor and was dilated to 6-7 and was 90% effaced but wasn't having any real contractions at that point. We had updates phoned to us and finally was told that she was headed to the hospital when we were still about 250 miles away. My husband I were pretty much sure that we would be too late to actually be there for the birth. As luck would have it Candice held on and we arrived in Virginia Beach about two hours before the actual birth. When Candice didn't seem to be making much progress the doctor started her on a Pitocin drip that didn't do much good so they ruptured the water and it was less then twenty minutes later our granddaughter was born!





Here is the first picture take of Hannah Elizabeth Doswell! Hannah weighed 5lb. 13 oz, 19.5 inches long.



Hannah and Momma!


The Doswell Family!
Chad, Candice, big sister Teresa, and Hannah!

Hannah and Momma came home from the hospital late tonight and no one felt like taking pictures so will get some tomorrow and post them later. Hannah and Momma are doing well. Hannah has lost about 6oz weight but is learning to nurse and is winning hearts! Teresa loves her baby sister and couldn't keep her hands off her wanting to love on her!