A day in the life of...

I received some wonderful cards in the mail today from a swap I joined. It was a humor swap and a red diva swap. These swaps are really neat. You create a set of identical cards, let's say 5 +1. So 5 of the same cards to distribute and an extra card for the swap host(ess).  Here is one set of cards I created for the humor swap. I created two sets, one was a toilet and the sentiment was : I hope everything comes out ok...

Anywhooo, I received the cards back from this swap and I was finally extremely impressed with the quality of cards returned to me.  Some of them made me laugh so hard.

Some of the other cards I made the week I sent these ol' ladies off was this pair for a children's burn unit at a hospital one of the SCS'ers is associated with: And this red thank you card. It actually had a butterfly attached just below the thank you panel but I didn't get a picture of it before I mailed it off.

Other than receiving the package of return swap cards, I didn't have much else happen today. I had class at the Red Cross, completed a few assignments, made homemade split pea and ham soup (yummy) did two loads of laundry, washed the kitchen floor, and now I'm updating my blog (yeah me!).

I think I might try to make a card or two before bed, just to help me relax. I thought about what my blog contained yesterday and even though it may seem mean, it was my opinion. It was my raw feelings laid out in black and white. I feel unappreciated in this situation. I have a right to my opinion just as anyone else does. If someone chooses to differ in opinion, then we differ. That is how it is... that is how it is going to be... I'm ok with it. I do see how it could seem blunt but you know what, it was blunt. Like I said, it was pure raw emotion.

Sometimes in life we are way too involved in our own situation that we fail to realize how much our situation is effecting others. Sometimes I end up the affected and I wanted to express that. No wrong in that. Nothing is wrong with having an emotion and expressing it. Nothing!

So now that I have that off of my chest I can go on and create something beautiful. Wonder what I should create? Guess we'll find out!

a little rant-ish post

There was a different post in this spot where I expressed my opinion for once.

For public reference the definition of the word invasion (adj)  defined as tending to infringe


God gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason, if you listen twice as often as you speak then others will hear you more clearly.

My husband has asked me to repost the original blog post.


***disclaimer*** If you don't like what I have to say during this post, I don't care to hear your comments... this is my blog, this is my opinion, this is my life***




Jacob was supposed to get on the train with his parents yesterday and come home and finish his treatment here, but he had a fever and the chemo sores in his mouth. So today he sits in a hospital bed on antibiotics and fluids. The poor little guy. We all know that those sores are not his parent's fault, that they are taking care of him to the best of their ability, and those sores sometimes just appear... however, he is dehydrated and that is something his parents could have controlled... I don't want to point fingers at them at all, but it is hard not to speak up when you can easily see where the mistakes are being made.



It is not that anyone wants to tell them that they are being bad parents, it is just that everyone wants Jacob to be a healthy, happy boy. This doesn't mean spoil him now while he is sick, it doesn't mean to let him get away with anything he wants to do because he is sick either, it means keeping balance, keeping a level head, keeping in mind that in a few months he will be a regular 5 year old again and then you will be dealing with a monster unless you keep the rules stable.



Keeping a level head during all this is a necessity too, taking too many meds or acting like it is all about you (the parent) is not helping either. What parents in these situations need to do is focus on the child and not themselves. Today I was told "I don't know how much more of this I can take..." and I stopped for a second and thought (to myself) is this about her? no! it is about that little boy... I'm having trouble even posting this blog because it is very personal, but this is a place where I can get the pressure off my chest, think about how I want to communicate things, and I can practice being very open and understanding, I can re-read, re-adjust, and re-think what I want to say.



Heck, maybe I don't even have a right to have an opinion on this since in my opinion they should not have moved their 5 year old 3 days after surgery, they should have had stayed at the same hospital he was diagnosed at, he should have not traveled 15 hours to another hospital, they should not have ripped him out of a hospital half way through his treatments to go to another hospital... but he isn't my son's son, I have no real connection to him except I am married to his father's adoptive father... I haven't opened my mouth and told them exactly where I think they have gone wrong, I haven't told them that I don't like to bend over backwards for people who don't really appreciate it, I haven't spoken up like I could, because I'm not sure what is my place in all this.



Do I really have the right to form an opinion? Do I have the right to say something because they are staying in my home (once they get on the train they are coming here)? Do I have the right to be upset that my life is being invaded? Do I have the right to say that? to think that? He is my husband's son and he has the right to ask his dad for help, but as his dad's wife, do I have the right to say I don't want to help? Not that I wouldn't and not that I am not helping, but in all actuality, those kids aren't all that much younger than I am and they moved in here and now I am supporting them... Craig makes some money, but it is not enough to cover our bills... so here my money goes.



And then there are the times when my parents help us with a little money here or there to pay for things, do I have the right to even accept that help because we have taken on an entire family? Does anyone realize that I have needs? that I have a full-time school schedule, that I need to purchase things for my family? I care about Jacob, I care about Joe, and I care about Erica, but they need to return the kindness at some level. I'm still angry that she broke my glass and didn't apologize... all because of her inability to take medications responsibly... what to do? what to do?

From 3 to sick

Can you say where'd the month go? I can. Things here have been fairly busy. About a month ago it was decided that my husband's son Joe, his wife Erica and their son Jacob would come to live with us. I had about two weeks to get the house ready to go from a household of three to a household of 6. I also maintained a full time college schedule, and kept up with my chores (you know cooking, cleaning, being mom, wife, student).
Anyway, I tossed our life up into the air and where it landed was in two less places. I turned the storage room off of the living room into a bedroom for the 5 year old. It is much larger than it sounds, but it is still small enough to stay fairly clean.
I rearranged the basement to make room for a bedroom in the corner for Joe and Erica. Did some mad organizing throughout the house because I had to find places for all the stuff that was in the storage room, and in the corner of the basement.
All this chaos going on in the house wasn't enough for one little household. We had to add more to our plates. Nine days after the other Jensen family joined us, the doctor who performed Jacob's tonsilectomy called to say they found a tumor on his tonsil. This was not what we had hoped for, no one ever hopes for a tumor but our fears were soon realized and the tumor was found to be cancer. Lymphoma is a very treatable form of cancer. Once it was determined that he had cancer for sure, I drove them to the train station and they went back to Indiana for treatment at the children's hospital in Indianapolis.
Jacob is undergoing his second round of chemotherapy starting today. We are hoping this is the last round he needs to be cancer-free. For right now we are all praying. Just praying for a smooth, quick, safe recovery. Praying that Jacob is young enough he forgets the pain, forgets the process, and bounces back like a 5 year old can.
Today the principal of the school called and he told me that some of the highschool kids wanted to do a fund raiser for Joe, Erica and Jacob. What big hearts our kids have here in this little town. I passed along phone numbers for both Joe and Erica to get parental approval, but I think any help is going to be welcomed.

I start my CNA classes this evening. Hopefully the class gets moved to a daytime class so it takes even fewer weeks to complete. The Red Cross called today to see if I had any objection to moving the class to a daytime class, and no, I do not. That would be awesome for me and my family as I am having a hard time believing Alex is ready to be home alone in the evening for 3-4 hours. I mean, I might come home to a pile of smoking ash that used to be my house...

I thought I'd end this with a few photos, one of Jacob and one of the first card we sent to his hospital room.

In Honor of the Queen Mudder!

A week ago exactly Mothermark at SCS was crowned Queen for the Day. I'm a week late so she can keep celebrating. I chose an old card from her gallery to case. Butterflies for Misty! by MotherMark

I changed just about everything but kept the same basic idea.

I used a vap! stamp from the $1 bin at Michaels to stamp the butterflies in versafine vintage sepia and sponged to color - red - orange - yellow.

I stamped the hero arts wildflowers in yellow, orange, and red on white card. I cut the image into the panels and sponged the edges of the panels.

I added a sentiment using a piece of vellum. I stamped the inkadinkado in versamark and used a mixture of red and clear embossing powder to heat emboss the words with love.

The three panels are mounted on a piece of brown card stock from core'dinations.

This image panel is framed with a piece of white card that was sponged to match.

Once this was all assembled the butterflies were glued to the coordinating panels.

Jolee's jewels were used to bling up the bottom of the card as well as two on the vellum to hide the adhesive :D

teapots, fish, fairies, and ladybugs

Today is Tuesday and Mothermark hosts the teapot tuesday challenge each week. The challenge is based on one of her many teapots she collects. Lately the MMTPT (mothermark teapot tuesday)challenges have had a destination. My heart just melts when I hear about a sick kid, and it makes me so grateful that my son Alex is healthy, my step son Joe is healthy and my step grandson Jacob is healthy. I can't imagine how hard it must be for the parents to watch their children suffer from a disease. Today the MMTPT challenge was to create a card for an 8-year old boy named Dante.

Dante is suffering from cancer and just received a bone marrow from his increadibly heroic 5-year old little sister Julia. I created a fish card for Dante because he really loves fishing, and Mothermark has a fish in a basket teapot for inspiration. :D

I used a Raisin boat set for the stamps and colored them with colored pencil. I stamped the blue paper with the bubbles stamp and colored the bubbles with clear gel pen and with clear stickles to create the background paper. That fishing pole sticks out of the nestabilities die cut because I used a technique called "out of the box" this is when you trim around the things that are going to go outside of the die and you carefully feed them through the die so they don't get cut off. I do this really roughly and then once I have the die all cut out I took the time to trim around the fishing pole and line a little better with a xacto knife. I used a texture plate to add some texture to the red layer and then matted it all on orange cs before placing it on the kraft card.

For the inside of the card I used a piece of the remaining blue cs that I stamped with bubbles and stickled all up, and a piece of white cs. I stamped the fish and colored them with colored pencil very lightly. I wrote a message from my family to Dante on the inside. I sure hope he likes it. 

Dante's sister Julia was the donor for his transplant. I thought she deserved a card too. I printed this cute digital image called Lily the sunshine fairy and colored it while I was waiting for Alex to get done with football practice. I used stickles and clear gel pen to make her shine. I even added a swaroski crystal to her wand. I love this little scatter joy sentiment and Julia did just that, scattered joy. As much as she may not understand exactly what she did for her brother, she will understand when they are older. I sure hope this brightens her day as much as the story of her heroism brightened mine. The paper is from Martha Stewart playful pink paper pad and this is a double sided paper. Nestabilities to create the sentiment panel and the stamp is from inkadinkado.

Last but not least, Julia and Dante have a younger brother named Gabe. I'm not sure on his age but I would guess he is two or three. I figured he would feel left out when his brother and sister receive a card, so I used this little digi by bugaboo stamps to create this cute little card for him. I hope he giggles when he receives it. The paper is from Best Occasions punch-out pack. The buttons are from Walmart.

Thanks for taking a look and if you'd like to send a card, please visit the Splitcoaststampers teapot tuesday challenge link: For Dante

Feeling blessed- creating with a gift

A few days ago I was lucky enough to receive a wonderful gift. A woman named Michelle aka Michelle VP and aka mybearybest sent me not only a card she created, but the stamps she used to create the card.

I had never heard of the stamp company, PMS, <--funny huh!!!

It stands for Paper Makeup Stamps, the owner if I am not mistaken is a makeup artist and a lover of rubber... no not rubbers, rubber that is inkable. lol...

I had this stamp set sitting on the table all weekend and finally got around to using it. I sent my soon to be sister in law a card but I didn't get a picture of it. I even did the same plaid technique that Michelle used in her card but put it on a kraft card and stamped the sentiment in brown. It turned out pretty nice but like I said I forgot to take a picture.

Tonight I decided I'd take Michelle up on her suggestion and create a card for the Makeup 4 the Weekend Challenge Katie (the owner) hosts on her company blog : Paper Makeup Stamps

I used the colors of the challenge, kraft, turquoise and lime green. I also used a little black and a little white. 

I started by stamping the sillouette type stamp of the three trees on white cs and used the out of the box technique because the image was just a little bigger than the nestie shape I wanted to use (nestie labels nine). After trimming I embossed the shape and then cut it. Leaving the die cut in the die I used some chalk in turquoise to chalk around the edges. I cut a piece of turquoise cs in the next size nestie to frame the first. Then I switched nesties (labels two) and cut one in lime green (second largest in the set) and ran the die cut through the swiss dots folder on my cuttlebug. Cut one more labels two die cut out of white and chalked the edge of it also while leaving it in the die.

I stacked the die cuts up using some pop-dots. I adhered the lime green and turquoise layers together with glue but used a layer of pop-dots between the white layers and the colored layers.

Along the bottom of the card I used the turquoise cs and white cs. I ran the turquoise cs through the cuttlebug using the swiss dots folder and then used a Martha Stewart border punch along the edge. I used the same punch on white cs and staggered the pattern so the white peeked out under the turquoise.

I ran a black ribbon along the turquoise cs and placed a little bow on the left side. The right side has the sentiment stamped on white and framed with lime green.

I love how this turned out and really find I am fond of this color combo. Great challenge and thanks for sending me the stamps and the info on the challenge Michelle!

Ink: Stazon

Paper: plain white, plain turquoise, plain lime green

Stamps: PMS (paper makeup stamps)

Accessories: ribbon, chalk, border punch, nestabilities (labels two and labels nine)

She's gotta go!

The card I made today is for my friend's daughter. She is going to start potty training next week and I thought this little image from http://www.dulemba.com/called "gotta go" was the perfect image. The site is free and there are tons of images and I believe the artist draws for coloring books. I just resized it to fit the card.  This card fits three of this week's challenges on SCS. One is the featured stamper and CAKath was chosen. Her gallery at SCS is spectacular. I chose to case her card:  CAKath's Card I loved the way her card looked and thought that it would be a perfect layout to display this adorable image.

Notice what the card is sitting on? It is the directions and dance steps for the Pull-ups potty dance. That is why I chose to use the sentiment Dance.

The pink cs was run through my cuttlebug using the swiss dots folder. I used a Martha Stewart border punch on the bottom edge of the pink cs and layered it over the floral dp (sei). I used some ribbon that I got in a card making kit and tied a piece onto the main ribbon in a knot. Then placed a white button over top using glue dots. Adding the white button meets another SCS challenge using a button and the fact that I am sending this out in the morning makes it fit the free for all challenge- sending a card that you are thinking of someone or to make them feel better after an ailment. Since Sharron is going to be potty training her daughter, I thought this was the perfect thinking of you card for the situation.

For some reason my picture is sideways, but the floral dp is at the top. I

I did decorate the inside with some of the same dp and the remaining piece of pink cs that was run through the swiss dots folder. A piece of the same ribbon runs across the seam. A hand written sentiment fill the space now.

This photo shows the glittery gel pen a little better than the first. You can see it on the collar, trim on her sleves, belt, hair ties, I drew stripes on the cuff of the socks, and the soles of the shoes.  I also used a white gel pen to add highlights to her dress and shoes. The colored pencil was blended with baby oil and blending stumps.

I think this turned out absolutely adorable. It was so fun to tiptoe through Kathy's gallery and choose a card to case. I'm glad I did today's challenge. Super gallery Kathy!

Thanks for stopping by and I'd love to know what you think.

Stamps: Inkadinkado, digi

Paper: DCWV (light pink), SEI (floral), Core'dinations (dark pink pre-embossed)

Ink: Stazon

Accessories: ribbon, button, clear gel pen, white gel pen

Techniques: dry embossing, baby oil blending (OMS w/babyoil instead)