Dublin Door revisited

Years ago, I made this card, and I was so proud of how it turned out.  I held on to the card for a long time, knowing eventually it would go to the just the right person, for the right occasion.  This did make its way to that special person earlier this year.  

I had been inspired by the famous doors of Dublin, Ireland.  This one is of course not brightly colored, as so many of theirs are.  As a side note, I sure am glad my husband and I got to visit Ireland in 2019, before the craziness of 2020 ensured.

The awning stands away from the card, best seen in the photo below.  The 'brass' doorknob is a brad, and the door was constructed from two different shades of gray cardstock.  I added little lines with a marker at each corner.

I even created a sidewalk for the potted topiaries (Flourishes DIY Topiaries) to stand upon.  I used Stampin' Up! Itty Bitty Backgrounds to get the mottled concrete look, then drew the slab lines with a marker.

Proverbs 14:1

The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down.

Thanks for taking a walk down memory lane with me today. 😀

Happy, Cats

LOL - the kitty cards I'm showing you today were SO fun to make!  There's a black cat version and a pale gray cat version.  In between, there's a 'love  / happy' card.  You'll see.

On both cat cards, I stamped paw prints randomly on the card base in a pale ink, and then used black (or gray) cardstock to hand-trim a cat head.  The eyes are made with two different sized circle punches, and the nose is just a tiny triangle of pink cardstock.  Cuties!

My Favorite Things 'BB Cool Cat' paw print, sentiment

Love the woodgrain (I forget which paper pad this came from) and silver mirrored heart on this next card!  I added a sentiment from My Favorite Things 'Essential Sentiments' on a double ended fishtail banner, and dark smoky gray and silver sequins.  Super simple in design.

Here's the gray cat!

My Favorite Things 'BB Cool Cat' paw print, sentiment

😀 These faces make me smile! 

Thanks for coming by, and God bless you!

More Catching Up

Hello everyone!  I cannot believe how crazy my life has been for, well, this whole year!  We've had {more than} our share of illnesses and injuries, for one thing.  My husband fell off a ladder at the end of August and dislocated his knee cap, rupturing the patellar tendon in the process.  Painful, yes.  Disgusting-looking, yes.  He had surgery a week later, and has been in a full leg brace since. Surgery went really well, and he's on the mend, doing his physical therapy.  He can't drive, as this happened to his right leg (of course!), so a lot more is resting on my shoulders for now.

Hurricane Harvey hit my beloved family in Texas pretty hard.  My brother and his wife had up to five feet of water on their property, and about two feet of water inside the house. They lost a lot, but thankfully have they flood insurance. They are luckier than some of their friends and neighbors who do not have flood insurance. What a tragedy. For now, my brother and sister-in-law are living with Mom, and her house remained dry and did not lose power - praise God!

Our family has been living with storms this year, both in nature - like the hurricanes - and other kinds of storms like mental illness in a cherished loved one; my husband's untimely fall; slipped discs in my back. These things can slow us down, but they also provide a new perspective for me. I am extremely grateful for the grace of Almighty God, the love in my family, the kindness of our neighbors.

1 Corinthians 13:13 NIV
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Thanks for taking a look at a handful of my creations today.

The calendar says Autumn has begun, but it feels like summer here this weekend, with high temps in the low 90s. I'll pass, thanks.  LOL I'm ready for cooler days and nights, and packing away summer clothes, and pulling out comfy, cozy fall and winter clothes.

Thanks so much for coming by here today.  I hope you are well!

Catching Up

Hi there!  I'm catching up!  This post is jam-packed with pics of cards that I've made for the shop, Arts Plus Gallery. Of course, the Mother's Day ones are not there anymore, but the rest are for sale, if you are interested.

Do you like to sew?  I found out about a non-profit group called, Dress A Girl Around The World, and they can always use our help.  A couple of kind ladies at my local church told me about this organization.  They need volunteers to help sew simple dresses to be given to girls in need around the world.  In one particular case, according to the lady I spoke with at church, there are young girls in Africa who walk a long distance to school.  There are uniforms the girls need to wear when they get to school, but they are not allowed to bring the uniforms home; those need to be kept at the school. Since these children are so poor, they do not have proper clothes to wear on the journey to and from classes. Because they are defenseless and barely-clothed, they are often attacked on the road. Breaks your heart, doesn't it?

That's where Dress A Girl Around The World comes in.

They ship pretty, simple dresses made by volunteers like you and me to the children. They get to keep their very own dress, and can wear it under their school uniform. You've got to see the sweet faces on the website's home page. Those kids have likely never seen such beautiful clothes, let alone owned them, and there's something really awesome about these dresses:  each one is sewn with a Dress A Girl label on the front.  This helps keep predators at bay, because it shows that these girls are being cared for by an organization and are LOVED.  What a wonderful way to share love with little ones around the globe, and help them stay safer.

I hope to sew some of these dresses myself soon.  If you are interested in helping the organization, please visit their website. Thank you, and God bless you!

Thanks for stopping by!  Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Sledding through the snow

Hello!  This Christmas card was made for my husband two holiday seasons ago, but I'm just getting around to sharing now.  It's truly one of my favorites, probably because I know all the work that went into this.  LOL

The large snowflake (Fancy Flakes / Papertrey Ink) and snow mounds (In The Meadow / Papertrey Ink) were die cut with white glitter paper. The small snowflake is a Martha Stewart Glacial Snowflake punch, topped with a clear gem.

The sled (Large Winter Sled / Memory Box) was cut two or three times in cocoa cardstock for some dimension, then topped with Martha Stewart Branch Punch sprigs, a twine bow, and red gems.

The weather outside is kind of warm today (high of 62) but tomorrow it should be down in the 40s for the high.  That's what I like this time of year.

Thanks so much for coming by today!  God bless you!

Hello, big blue butterfly!

Hi there!  I'm sharing a card that I donated to a local fundraiser last spring.
Shades of mint, French blue and white....definitely spring-like!

On top of a piece of polka-dot patterned paper, I layered a Papertrey Ink Coverplate: Pretty Frame in white. Along the bottom, two Grassy Fields layers (My Favorite Things) create the ground, topped with paper roses (iamroses.com) and some sparkling sequins.

The sentiment is by Paper Smooches Salutations and the butterfly die cut is from Stampin' UP! Beautiful Butterflies Bigz, a seldom-used die in my stash.

Thank you so much for your visit today!  Have a blessed week ahead! :-)