Well, obviously Cancer research is dear to my heart, as my own daughter Alexa (now 7), has been directly affected. The photo’s above- The one on the right was Christmas 05-less than 2 months before we found out she had Leukemia. She was already “sick” then but we didn’t know just how bad things were. I HATE this photo. Its one that reminds you how you never know what’s around the corner. What tomorrow brings! Oh, also hate it because her hair was just so beautiful. I used to always do something cool with it. She hated when I messed with it. I miss her hair sometimes. Her treatment started Feb. 06, and she has another 1 1/2 years left, provided all goes well. Treatment is about 2 1/2 years long. Boys have 3 years due to the fact that cancer cells hide in the testicles. There have been MANY bumps in the road. But she is doing well. I cannot complain. She is here and for that I am thankful.

The one on the left is Alexa a few weeks ago at Disney. She had so much fun. I love this one because she looks good. Healthy and happy again. Still o hair, but her weight is back up to her pre-cancer weight. At one point during treatment Alexa lost almost 1/2 her body weight, and weighed LESS than her 2 yo sister. That was hard. Now she is back to MY ALEXA here.

Knowledge is power! And it leads to a CURE! I truly believe that one day, NO ONE will ever die from Cancer again! I hope I am around to see that day. They have made great stride’s over the years. As little as 10 years ago, Alexa most likely would have had a death sentence handed to us, with her diagnosis. Now there is HOPE! Hope for a CURE.

She has an excellent prognosis to beat this, and have it NOT return. Her type of cancer Pre-B Cell Leukemia is one of the highest curable forms of cancer there is (thank god). But we are always scared of the WHAT IF factor. There are also contributing factors that make up her prognosis, that YOU hopefully never have to know about.

Age is a huge factor. Adults don’t do as well as children with Leukemia. The fact of the matter is Cancer KILLS. Many people still die from this. BUT now many people BEAT IT! And they move on and LIVE their life. AMAZING!

Back to knowledge is power. Well yet another fact, knowledge is obtained through research. Alexa is on a chemo regimen that is under research. Her protocol is in the “works” of being tested. Many kids/people are under these programs to see “what” works. What happened during this phase and that. Some of that research helped save Alexa’s life in the early stages of treatment. They found certain treatments in kids ONLY with Down Syndrome would KILL them. Sorry, Im not trying to be harsh, this is reality. And this reality KILLS me to have to write about. I don’t want to be a “number”, a statistic of one who LOST anyone, especially my baby to this horrible disease! SO this is reality. This is what we live every day. The statisic! Will we be on the favored end? I sure as hell hope so! I BELIEVE so! I HAVE to!

But I don’t just sit and hope other people will make it happen! I try to do MY part to help. Not just by having Alexa in this trial, but my supporting research! Research cost money. Another cold hard fact. But you can help. The smallest amount adds up! Think how much you spend on coffee a day or some other luxury. If every person even gave $1! Think how much that would be! I know I sound like a telemarketer or something,  But its not going into my wallet, its going into resources that are used to saving peoples LIVES. That is priceless! Especially if it were your child, mother, husband, friend-anyone you love. Don’t say it won’t affect me or my family. You never know. TRUST ME on that.

Anyway, there are so many ways you can help!

My friend Tracey is walking for a cure. This is her Relay For Life. PLEASE check it out. She just lost her uncle William “Bill” Mahoney Jr. to Lung cancer April 21st. She also decided to walk in honor of my daughter Alexa’s fight!

I am personally donating my time to our town’s Relay for Life in June 23rd in Concord New Hampshire. I will be doing a project with attendee’s from 7pm-10pm. They are going ALL night to raise money! I am doing my part to give back.

Also in case you didn’t know Missy B Designs, designed a stamp set for Alexa!

ALL procedes from the sale of this set go to pediatric Leukemia and Lymphoma research!

Alexa decided what she wanted for images (groovy girls of course), and even has a stamp with her “signature” in it!

Check it out!                                                         

www.missybdesigns.com

Thanks so much for reading my rambles.  If you can remember Alexa in your prayers.          

Try to say that 3 times fast! Now does this not SCREAM Happy Birthday? Its just so cheery! AND ssparkly! You can’t tell but the cake just shines. I think the colors rock! Yes, I am lovin them. Quite the unusual combo.

Bashful Blue, Lovely Lilac, Positively Pink, Green Galore, and Only Orange. WOW!

Paulette gave me some of this patterned paper in my goodie bag. Obviously it totally inspired my colors. I love the funky mix of colors it has, and felt the bouquet cake was perfect to coordinate with it. I sent this to one of my PSF’s-LATE birthday card. Sorry! I’m good at makin’em just not so good at sendin’em! LOL!

The layout was suppose to be different but then one thing lead to another, and this was born! I was quite happy with the end result. I changed the Prima like 4 times till I was settled on this one. I really wanted it balanced. Choose the wrong flower and its all over! Seriously! ONE detail can really make or break your design.

Anyway the set is You Take The Cake by My Favorite Things Stamps. The sentiment was made wavy by me, cause the set is acrylic so you can manipulate it to go how you want it to, depending on the image. Cool huh?

I got my Mega Oval punch from Christine at www.allthatscraps.com. You can get on her waitlist. She is fabulous to deal with. I then just punched hole around the oval. More feminine look I think.

Thats about it!

Stay tuned tomorrow-

I love monochromatic cards. I also think black and white are just so wonderful for a card. I think its clean, and classic. But, I think its even more wonderful when a splash of color is used! It really makes it just POP! My blog is a place I feel I can express my creative process and at the same time, maybe teach or challenge you and your own creative abilities! So keep reading OK!

I used stamps from My Favorite Things Stamps.

She has some new sets out! For the Thanks Card I used Behind the Scenes, and Setting the Stage. I stamped my sentiment block in black versafine ink. I then took a versacolor cats eye ink and smudged it over the Thanks-for that word to be highlighted.

The polka dotes are also done in versafine black in, on whipser white.

The scalloped edge stamped on bottom portion, then holes punched in centers.

On the black I stamped the stripped border, in white craft ink. I was able to easily line them up straight cause the set is acrylic. A HUGE benefit!!! Im so lovin acrylic these days. Especially for things like this. If its rubber then I use my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig! Dont stress your self trying to line things up like 8 times if you have this tool! Seriously!

For more POP! I used a Bazzill Flower, and some polka-dot ribbon. (ribbon from Jody’s share)I love tying the ribbon thru a flower. Just love it!  There was the final splash of color.

Now this one I just LOVE!!! It is so elegant and took NO TIME at all! Its a great even layout, and again splash of color makes it POP!

Once again, all images are from My Favorite Things Stamps.

I used a repeat of the floral block from Behind the Scenes (love that stamp set). I then colored in the flowers/leaves with a glitter pen in olive, and like a deep pink color. Had to add some BLING. It just goes KWIM? LOL!

 I stamped the polka dot image on the olive. Tied around the wide black organdy ribbon. Layered it to the card.

I stamped the sentiment block and used my circle punch to pop out the words I wanted. Cute eh? Layered it onto a black circle, then added a prima to continue color flow and pattern.

I was pleased as punch.

Let me know what your favorite color is to make black and white POP! I challenge you to go stamp a card with it (your b&w card with pop of color) and link it here! Even bigger challenge do one of the layouts!!!

Now this is what I call fun! Oh yeah, try NOT to use pink! Sorry I already took it! LOL!

Ok Im done, so get your butt off the computer, and go create something. You always complain too much time on the computer, not enough time stamping. So GO!!!

Now if you make an excuse and CAN’T stamp still reply to your favorite POP color. I will randomly select one persons response and make a card with their color! Just to see!

Good morning PSF’s!

Hope you are having a nice weekend.

I have lots of info to share with you today~

The Winner of Mytime Mail is going to be POST # 29! Teresa you are the winner. Email me your address! Here is what Teresa writes-

 NOW FOR MORE ANNOUNCEMENTS!

ALEXA’s MAKE A WISH- her scrapbook pages have been posted  here-mytime fan club! View each page in her exploding book of love! I need to spend some time and comment myself. I can tall you that the pictures don’t do the actual pages justice. BIG THANKS to all!

Check out this months Stampers Sampler-I’m on page 16! Funny thing is I submitted the card 2 YEARS ago! LOL!

CRAFT CRITIQUE!

There is a blog called Craft Critique that gives unsolicted opinions on crafting. Under their Carnival of Altered Items they have listed my Time For Tea gift set! Check it out. Im extatic to be amongst lots of talent listed there!!!

GREEN GRASS STAMPS SALE! (this is copy/pasted from Tammy’s email)

Mother’s Day is coming up, so in honor of all those moms-to-be out there (well, and everyone else), we’re having a sale — now through Monday, you can get our latest set, Baby Shower, for $17.99 ($4 off it’s regular price!).  It’s all you need for baby shower invitations, but it’s great for birth announcements and baby cards as well, with a pretty quote, a long scallop stamp, a big curvy bracket and lots more (20 stamps in all).  Check it out, you’ll like the new store.  Oh, also — my favorite font, Chase, is also on sale for $29.99 (normally $34.99), so grab that for $5 off through Monday.  It’s a pre-order, though, so it won’t ship for a couple of weeks. 

Announcement #2 is that we have a blog.  It’s updated six days a week with new ideas from our design team.  Which brings me to announcement #3…our design team! 

The Green Grass Girls are:

Sherry Cartwright
Elizabeth Kartchner
Lauren Meader
Laura Mendoza
Becky Novacek

Check out their posts, they’re all super talented stampers and really neat people.  I’ve been impressed by them and inspired by their creativity.  Aww…  😉  

ECLECTIC PAPERIE 

eP is having a sale that ends today in honor of National Scrapbook day. Save 15% off your entire order when you enter in this code: NSD09

ALL THAT SCRAPS 

Check out some of the NEW! Products at All That Scraps! They are getting a boat load of new stuff this week and next! PLUS she is getting more Bitzy Bugz soon too! They also have ALL the Bazzill cardstock ON SALE all the time! Plus the Bazzill ink. Im seriously falling in love with this line of paper.

MY FAVORITE THINGS- Want to win 3 stamp sets FREE?? Go check out Kim’s blog for all the details. All you need to do is what you do best-STAMP!

I have a club meeting today with my Stampin Up! customers and it will most likely be my last. SO I hope we have a good time! Enjoy your Sunday!

Tomorrow and maybe later tonight I have eye candy for you all! SO check in again later-

OK As promised! Here is MYTIME MAIL! I am already over 20,000. Not that is matters. But its KINDA cool to watch the numbers go up.

Much better than the scale!

This is for a new UM Reason to Smile, and UM Doodle Numbers set! I will pick a random winner on Sunday.

All YOU need to do is respond to this post by telling me your birthday (year isnt necessary so don’t worry), and one of you best birthday memories.

I love learning about you all. So lets hear it!

My Birthday is May 3rd.

One of my best birthday memories was when I was 10. My grandmother took me on a $500 shopping spree! Literally! We went to Sears, and spent the day at the mall. It was so fun. I remember saying to my grandmother when the total showed on the screen-“Oh my gosh, grammy thats alot of money. Lets put some stuff back. Grandpa will kill you”

And she just smiles and said “Don’t worry about it, I’ll take care of your grandfather.” LOL!

Another good memory was my 7th birthday My mom had a big party for me, and made me a cabbage patch birthday cake. I got the Michael Jackson RECORD! The one of him in the white suit with the tiger.

It was so hard to get and I was so excited.

Funny. Wish I had that album now. I thinks its worth alot of $ now! Its VINTAGE you know!

You know you are old when the toys you had as a kid is listed as ANTIQUE! WHAT!!!!

Check in for tomorrow’s Sketch challenge. And maybe some eye candy!

How cute is this stamp? It could be a little boy OR girl in a wagon, depending on the colors you use.

Its from Missy B Designs. Her set is called So Many Kids. This is a child with cancer sitting in a wagon.

I love it. Finally special kids set. There is a boy and girl with Down Syndrome, in a wheelchair, with glasses, braces, broken arm/leg on oxygen…..very cool Melissa! As a parent to a child with TWO of these issues THANKS!! You did a fabulous job.

I made this card for Shane. He is a little boy battling Leukemia. PLEASE SEND HIM A CARD! His birthday is quickly approaching. His ONE Make-A-Wish was to receive a MILLION birthday cards. He will be 8! I have sent in about 10 myself.  Here is his story.

Now for the sketch and card info. You can find the original sketch here. WARNING Holy crap were my photos BAD! I never realized it till now! LOL! This is a cute and simple sketch, for a quick card on the run.

I hope you get to play. Link it back here if you do! Have a great weekend!

Stamps-Missy B and MFT You take the cake (sentiment), All in a row

Cardstock-whisper white, cool caribbean, not quite navy, marigold morning.

Ink- black & Not quite navy. Colored with Prisma color pencils,blending stump and gamsol.

Accessories- slit punch, white grosgrain, 3/4 circle punch, eyelets. Sakura glitter pen to outline Make A Wish

Hi Everyone!

Life was crazy today! Had some samples to make, and cleaned /organized my stamping area. I ahve over 90 stamp sets to PURGE!!! (insert shocked face)

I will most likely post a page of them here over the next few days….so Ill let ya know.

Wanted to share a few birthday things with you first.

This is Jason. Standing next to my pile of birthday presents.

Can you see that they are wrapped in Christmas paper? Look closely and you can see the lovely Christmas wrapping. Jason “forgot” wrapping paper. Even though we were in the gift isle at Target the night before!

He also forgot candles for my cake.

And “I” had to go pick up my birthday dinner, cause he “ran out of time”.

What can I say. This was the most forgetful he’s ever been. And usually he’s SO ROMANTIC with his cards. OMG! This year I have no idea what happened but he gave me a creepy “JOKE” card that I will NOT share. It had quite the photo on the front, and inside it said something about it being a photo of my parents the night I was CONCEIVED! Um good one honey- I was so grossed out.

Anyway I did get an 2 hour backrub while we watched Grey’s Anatomy!

I got a TV for my stamp room. WOW I never realized how deprived I was till that was put in! I had tpo clean to make room. I have way too much CRAP! If its alterable I OWN 20! LOL!

I got an MP3 player. Cool pink color too. Shopping $$. Although I must say after reorgainzing the LAST thing I need is more stuff-(till tomorrow).

Lots of gift certificates. Some to eP! Cash and checks-always fun! And my Prisma markers. Cool colors but I need LOTSA practice with these.

AmyR and I were chatting and I was totally freakin out by my lack of abilities with them. PRACTICE! Thats what I need.

Now I got the most amazing thing in a Pizza box! I never met anyone who has ever mailed a Pizza Box! And it was the most delicious scrap page layout from my friend Staci!!!! (aka misermom) for our meeting at House of Blues! She loves me!!!!! She also sent a cd with the photos so I can put my favorites on the page! Thanks Staci!

I also got AMAZING cards form some of my bestest PSF’s!

Here they are!

BIG thank you to all of you! Aren’t they just fab-u-lous! Am I lucky or what?

I love them all. Thanks so much!!!! Your words and creations mean the world to me.

Hard to believe my special day is OVER!

Well there is always Mother’s day right?

 Happy 29th Birthday to me!

As I sit here I sing myself the birthday song! I was for whatever reason, excited about this birthday. Maybe because its my last year in my twenties and I should treasure it? I think I was maybe too excited, cause my life couldn’t live up to the expectation of the day! LOL! But thats all it is ONE day, that will soon be just another.

In all seriousness, I have so much to be grateful for. When I look at my life year to year, there have been bumps, but each one has got me here.  I have been very fortunate! 10 years ago (not only was I a baby) but I didnt know anything! I had no idea what true love, joy and happiness really were! Although I thought I knew it all. I understand why they say youth is wasted on the young! I can only imagine the knowledge I will gain in another decade (God willing) of living life.

So many things have happened over the last 5 years its amazing. I have morphed into a completely different person! Some are attributes, others probably not so much. Depends on who you ask.

I have been through alot in my 29 years. Some things that take other people a lifetime to complete. For all of it, I am thankful.

I have been married and divorced. Been a single mother to a child with disabilities, and done a pretty good job I think. I have all the children I will ever physically bear. I found my true soul mate. A man who brings out the best in me, and challenges me to grow into an even better person. I have owned homes, had nice furniture, lots of money and fancy cars (first marriage) and learned even with all that, without love, that wasn’t happiness. I had a career, then happily became a stay at home mom again, then got a hobby! Alexa got diagnosed with cancer. That was huge! But that experience made my marriage stronger, brought people together that would not be otherwise, gave me faith and hope (cause thats all you can have sometimes), showed me sometimes you can only go UP the ladder, taught me each day truly is a gift. Age doesn’t matter. ANY day could be your last. Always say I love you, never take people for granted, or your life and health for granted. That there truly is a higher power. Sometimes you will have no control, and it will be OK. If I really want to accomplish something, all I need, is hard work and confidence and it WILL happen. Set goals. Somethings aren’t important- Like the laundry being folded or the house being spotless. Friends come in many forms, and from unexpected places. Every moment in life has a purpose.

Most importantly take it ONE day at a time.

And Im lucky to have my husband, children and family! Some people have no one. I feel I have it all. I am blessed.

Wow thats alot of reflection-sorry about that but I feel good.

So I made myself a birthday card!

How many people make THEMSELVES a birthday? I would guess not many, so that would make me UNIQUE! LOL! Or so I like to think.

This is the first of many 29th birthday’s for me-LOL! Im keeping this number for quite some time I think. That’s why I chose this sentiment. I bought it months ago at Impress rubber stamps. View my shopping log to check them out. The sentiment is stamped in craft eggplant, and embossed with iridescent ice EP. The rainbow organdy ribbon is from Michaels.

The Birthday Girl, and sentiment are both by the NEW! 2007 Penny Black line.

I used purple because that is of course my favorite color! The center of the “9” has a faux diamond. I LOVE bling! I also love my cuttlebug-so had to use that. This number set is the Red Tag alpha.

Her dress is purple stickles. LOVE those too. I also love cutting around an image, and some goes outside the border.

NOW-the background! It was a sentiment stamp by Penny Black. When we went to the expo we all learned a JAW ON THE FLOOR technique that was super easy. I bought some purple “Bling Bling” as they call it, so per our agreement (we had to use everything we bought within a week and time is ticking) I used it.

All you do is stamp in versmark. Apply heat & stick powder (heat set). Apply bling paper shiny side up. Rub well, then rip off fast! DONE! How cool eh?

I just love girly images. I am definitely the girly girl type.

So that MY birthday card! LOL!

Well now I must run to the DMV to get a new License. That should be fun.

I have some other cards to post but will let my emotions soak in before doing that! LOL!

Thanks for reading.

Be back later to post some MYTIME MAIL, cards received, and other musings! Stay Tuned!!

Isn’t this beautiful? I mean really?

I know its lame to pat yourself on the back, but when you have a “vision”and it turned out even better than hoped, or you are just please with what you do you SHOULD get excited about it! This craft is all about creativity and expression!

I am in love with the Stampendous stuff @eP! OMG! I cannot stop shopping there! Anyway, this is a favorite flower image of mine called Poppy Stems.

I embossed it in gold onto natural ivory cardstock. Watercolored the stems, centers and bkgd. I then used my new white liquid pearls, and applied it to the flower petals. I cut a few out and put them on dimensionals.

The bottom was done using an Onare piercing template from Ellen H’s store. I used my journaler point of the marker, to connect the “dots” so to speak, so it looks stitched.

The “photo corners” were just the wrought iron punch, cut! Love the elegant look.

The background was this butterfly bkgd I got at the stamp expo. I used my pearlescent pastels over them, so it really shimmers. I did this for the sketch challenge 122.

Tied on some gold ribbon. Stamped “My Mom” from Fancy flexible phrases, punched and layered the ovals and I was done. OOPS Lets not forget color spritzed! Love that tool!

OK that sounds extremely simple but was a slightly time consuming work from the heart!

Thanks for looking-I will be back-again!

One more day till my Birthday! I actually think I’m excited. Can you tell? I’m doing a birthday card-a-thon! LOL! Seriously though its the most used card topic don’t ya think? I got some cards from friends in the mail, and I will post a photo of them tomorrow! Thanks everyone. I love you all 😀

So, as you all may know I am one the Design team members for Lizzie Anne Designs. You can see my samples in their gallery. Make sure you click on the category (ie birthday, holiday). They have some awesome talented girls workin for them (I hope I can keep up)! SO here you can meet the Design Team! I always find it fun reading about people lives, and the paths they have chosen and why!

ENABLER ALERT! DO NOT click this if you DON’T want to see the NEW! releasescoming out! Money may mysteriously began to fly out of your checking account, and you may even end up with HAPPY mail (thats what I call any delivery with stamping goodies).

My box of goodies should be arriving in the next 2 weeks. Watch out Mr. Mailman! I will be hunting you down.

So until then……here are some little bits of eye candy for you.

The card at the top-I wanted funky and fresh. I didnt have much in the way of Birthday sets from Lizzie Anne so was challenged to do something cool. The present is from their Celebrations II set. I love making things 3D, so for the center gift thats what I did. I also stuck a small piece of tissue paper in the gift box, so its like an open gift.

I stitched (faux of course) around the black layer to continue that pattern in the gift boxes. I LOVE circles, so went with that. No card is complete these days without a cuttlebugged anything!

 For the tag I stamped the happy birthday sentiment from Simply Sentiments multiple times in alternating inks, then cut/rounded the corners.

Ribbon is from AC.

 Happy Birthday 2U

Well this card is different because the gift box is the card. It opens from the bottom. I loved the circle image from Funky Floral, so used that to make my patterned present.

The ribbon was from the Bella Art booth at the stamp expo (make not girlies) and was the inspiration for the card colors.

Used Simply Sentiments again for the round tag, and the “gift for you” on the side.

 Little Bits of birthday wishes

This card is clean and simple. I got the ribbon from the new Martha Stewart line. It inspired this card colors. I used the Little Bits set to make my flowers. Happy Birthday stems were done using  Simply Sentiments set. HAD to add some bling! That would be from K & co.

The awesome flower border is a new punch by Martha’s line. Im not big on those long border punch but have to say I am LOVIN this one!

That all for today. I really hope I get to stamp BUT my nursing license needs renewing TOMORROW, and I have to get 30 hours of CEU’s done from now till then or my license lapses! EEEEK!

I know WHY did I wait. Well, honestly I forgot. I put the paperwork at the bottom of the mail pile and there it lay till yesterday. I really dont want to go back to nursing so I think it was a subconscious thing. I also dont want to lose what I worked SO HARD to get. So I will be reading and testing today in between kids freakin out and needing things.

I actually hoping to continue my love for stamping and making that my “career”. Sounds stupid but I think I can do it! People do! Why not me? NIX my last comment- I WILL do it! LOL! Eventually……………

So till tomorrow!

I will be posting MYTIME MAIL since its my birthday! So be on the look out.

HUGS PSF’s-