I will call her Carolyn...

I created this angel for Valentines Day, but in the process of making her I learned of someone who is in much need of a guardian angel. With symptoms of what she thought was a stomach ulcer has turned out to be the harshest of words- cancer. She has been told that there is nothing they can do for her pancreatic and liver cancer but to give her chemo treatments to ease the pain. She has devoted her life to being a mother of three small children with the youngest only 9 months, as well as a nurse who has taken care of very ill patients. I am hoping that this angel will shine light on her life as she does those around her. The star represents all that she is to her family and loved ones. I think I will name her Carolyn.


I created her by using a cone and hot glued crepe paper in rows as I gathered it. Once I had all the layers on, I sprinkled chunky glitter on the edges. Her wings were a Christmas ornament that I cut in half and glued on. Her head is a wooded ball that was painted white and wiped off for a white washed look, and given chalk color to her cheeks. Her crown is ribbon that I found at Hobby Lobby on a bolt. I bought the whole bolt because it was on clearance and could no longer buy it by the yard (so you may be seeing a lot of it on up coming cards). Her collar is made from MS Scandinavian Snowflake punch in pink and SU Scallop Circle punch in sheet music from 1937. I wanted to keep a vintage feel to her so the old sheet music fit the ticket. I punched out three of each and rubbed distress ink on the edges. I sprinkled the edges with glitter and alternated the two styles. The brad at her neck is also from SU but I put a pearl in the center.

This is a close-up of her necklace. The light bulb is part of the Industrial Chic line of charms found in the bead department at Michaels. I bought several different packages to use as altered art. Each package has three different charms. The word "life" was actually part of a stick pin, but I broke it off and glued it to the chain. The chain was from some old broken necklaces that I threw in my altered stash and the star is a button that I covered in glitter.

I think about Carolyn all the time and try to imagine what she must be feeling. I think until you are put in that awful place, there is no way any of us could possibly understand. It has made all of us at work, take a step back and look at our own mortality. I thank god that my children are somewhat grown and that they could live without me if they had to. That they could remember me without having to look at a picture and be told who I was. That they could have fond memories of growing up with a mother who loved them unconditionally. What breaks my heart the most is that not all of Carolyn's children will have that and she knows it. I don't think there can be any greater pain than that. Life just isn't fair.

~ Have fun and enjoy what you have!

I Even Love the Box

Oops, I know it is a bit late for Christmas but as I was going through my pictures, I realized I had forgotten to post this cute little guy. I think I had mentioned that the gal that was teaching our Copic classes moved to New York. Cathy will be sadly missed and they haven't found anyone to replace her yet. My images may look like I have been coloring with Copics for a long time, but truth be had, without her guidance it would look nothing like this. I am almost ashamed to say that I have yet to color anything with my markers other than what we have done in class. My Copics sit on my desk and have become a very expensive table accessory. I think I need to add "using my markers" to my resolution list.

I don't have a picture of the colors I used but here are the numbers in case you are interested. The stamp is called "I Even Love the Box" by Mo Manning.


Face- E000, E00, E11, R20
Fur- C00, C1
Hat- R22, R27, E09
Bow- G20, G40, G82
Box- E42, E44
Wrapping Paper- YG91, YG97
Tag- E30, YG95, R27
Pajamas- YG91, YG95, YG97, E31, E35, E37
0 Colorless Blender

Not much else is new here. It has been cold and snowy so I have found hanging out at home is the best place to be; other than that thing that supports my stamping habits called work.
I have been following the release of the new Spellbinders along with everyone else in the stamping world. They look like they are getting quite fancy with the new designs. And how many more new things can Tim Holtz come out with? I can't wait for CHA to get under way so we can get a glimpse at all the new products.

Did anyone try the Kahlua cake from my last post yet? If not, you don't know what you are missing. I have a nice hot cup of coffee sitting here on my desk and a piece of that cake would be heavenly with it. My waistline says otherwise. I guess I will have to settle with the flavored creamer in my coffee at my treat.

Until next time-



~Have fun and enjoy~

Ella Blue

It was the hubby's birthday this past week and I think I was pushing it a bit for a masculine card. I just fell in love with the name of this designer paper by GCD Studios called Ella Blue. I found it at hobby lobby and it has the most beautiful papers. Some are flocked, glittered and foiled. There were 12 designs and 4 of each in a 8x8 pad. This was the least feminine design of them all.

I have had the Medallion Chain punch from EK Success for quite some time and I had forgotten about it. I was stamping with a friend and she was using this punch. I loved the look so when I got home I pulled mine off the shelf. I thought a medallion was a masculine shape so this would be a perfect chance to use it, and it matched the swirls in the paper. I know I can very easily make this punch look really really girly but I gave it the masculine test first. Come to think of it, all but one of the punches I used on his card are from EK Success. The white label is from Stampin' Up.

Onto the best part of his day. I tried a new recipe for his birthday cake. A co-worker had brought this cake into work and I asked her for the recipe. She is from Poland and said this was a favorite of her family. I know why.

You have got to try this cake. It is called Babka Kahlua (Black Russian cake in Polish). You guessed it, it has vodka and Kahlua in it and it is absolutely heavenly with a cup of coffee. Here is the recipe.

BLACK RUSSIAN CAKE

1 yellow cake mix (without pudding)

6oz. chocolate instant pudding

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs

1/4 cup vodka

4 Tbs. Kahlua

3/4 cup water

glaze: 1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/3 cup Kahlua

Mix the first three dry ingredients together, add the oil and eggs and mix well. Add vodka, Kahlua and water and mix again. Mix may be on the thinner side but the pudding will start to thicken it up. Pour into a greased and floured bundt pan and bake at 350 for 55 minutes. Do not over bake. Let cool 5- 10 minutes and loosed from the pan out onto a plate. Let cool another 10 minutes. Poke holes in the top of the cake staggering every 1/2 inch and pour the glaze down into the holes. I used a larger skewer to poke the holes and spooned the glaze over the top trying to get most of it into the holes but allowing it to soak into the rest of the top of the cake as well. Dust with powdered sugar just before serving.

It has been really cold here and we missed a good amount of lake effect snow they were predicting yesterday. I guess my in-laws and father got it all in the U.P. and that is just fine with me. My good friend left for Florida this week and she is now sitting in 70 degree weather. I know she is feeling really sorry for me being stuck back here in the cold- HaHaHa.

Now is the time of winter when I start to work on stamping projects other than cards. I have one that I made yesterday that I will be sharing with you later in the week.

~Have fun and enjoy!

Just a different color...

Since I was so late in getting my Christmas cards made and sent out, I didn't have a chance to post these and I didn't want them to be seen on my blog before they were delivered. I guess I am having a hard time catching up. I made the same card but in three different colors. I think the purple is my favorite. What do you think?

I embossed cream shimmer card stock with the Cuttlebug Victoria folder and then cut out 100 labels using Spellbinders Label 16. There were 50 of each size- run each of those through a die cut machine twice (once to cut and again to emboss) no wonder the fingers are tingling from carpal tunnel. Boy the Vagabond would have come in handy. I had borrowed the wreath stamp so I apologize for not remembering who makes it- maybe penny black? I embossed the stamped image in queens gold and then used stickles in the coordinating color. I just happened to have satin ribbon that matched the card stock perfectly. It was truly amazing how closely the purple matched.

I hope you all had a wonderful New Year and are on the right track for keeping your resolutions. I never set myself up for one certain goal. I just try my best at every thing I do and when I slip up I don't beat myself up. Tomorrow is always a new day to try it again and hopefully I learned something from yesterday.

~Have fun and enjoy!