Merry Merry Christmas

Hello Dear Friends
I do hope you and yours are all well and the weather is being kind to you.

When I last posted I had no idea it would be so very long before I’d be back. You see I won the lottery and I’ve been on a world cruise, I’ve seen all the lovely sights…  Errr you aren’t buying it are you. That would have been so very nice but the truth is I’ve just been busy with every day life.

It’s all good. The house is all shiny and bright, the halls are decked, everything that needed to be has been mailed, the gifts are wrapped and the stockings are hung. We are enjoying two glorious weeks of children, grandchildren and in-laws, 15 in total. The house is full of joyful laughter and more food is being consumed then anyone would believe.

Since we are a family of yours, mine and ours, our tradition is to celebrate and open our gifts on Christmas Eve. Everyone is free to spend Christmas day as they wish but since we have open house most of them filter in and out through out the day.

The house will seem empty and be very quite when everyone leaves. I’ve miss playing in the Closet and I’ve missed all of you but I am enjoying every second I can with those I love. I will return and visit with you all after the first of the year.

I wish all of you and yours all the joys and peace of Christmas.  May all your Christmas wishes come true. 

  Have an Amazing Christmas!
Blessings
Bernie
Click here to give --- It’s Free

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

My card today is to promote breast cancer awareness. I used the free digi HOPE ribbon from Incy Wincy Designs. I printed it on pink card stock, cut it out then mounted it onto a Spellbinders Classic Ovals Lg. I colored the border of the oval with liquid gold DecoColor pen. The lace, flowers, half pearls and rhinestones are from my stash.
  One look at my blog and you know Breast Cancer is a subject close to my heart. My dearest friend Susie is a 25 yr. survivor thanks to early detection by mammogram.  My daughter Donna was diagnosed with breast cancer on 1-11-11. She has only recently completed her treatments and is now in remission. Thankfully Donna’s cancer was discovered very early by mammogram. Even after they pin pointed where the tumor was neither she nor her doctors could feel it. This shows just how important it is to get your mammograms regularly.


You can also help save someone else’s life. In this dreadful economy many women, my sister included, have lost their medical insurance and can no longer afford their mammograms. On my side bar and at the bottom of every post I have links to the Breast Cancer site. Please click on one of those links whenever you visit, it only takes a second and each time you do a sponsor will donate funds so women can receive free mammograms.

Thank you for stopping by. I truly treasure each and every kind word you leave me.

Have an Amazing Day!

Blessings
Bernie
Click here to give --- It’s Free

A Starburst

Hi There Friends

Hope you are all well and enjoying a lovely week. Sorry for disappearing. I have been trying to visit you all but there's lots going on here all interfering with the crafty side of my life.  Winter seems to be coming towards us like a runaway fright train. I have been trying to get the garden put to bed and plants tucked into the greenhouse before it gets here.  Aw but you know I can’t stay out of The Closet for very long so I do have a card to share with you today.

I found this tutorial some time ago and I’ve been wanting to make one ever since. I used Spellbinders Foliage, a portion of Sizzlit branch with leaves and layered some flowers from my stash. I don’t have a ribbon die yet so I stamped my sentiment then cut it out with Spellbinders Labels Three. Just ran it thru the Cuttlebug cut and embossed then repositioned the die to make a narrow ribbon and back thru the bug. I used a slot punch then weaved my ribbon thru and behind my sentiment. I think this would look much better if I had inked my edges but over all I'm happy with how it turned out. Since the entire card was made with scraps including the ribbon I’ll be sharing it at Jules’ playground.  


THANKS for stopping by and thank you for your lovely comments.

Have an Amazing Day!
Blessings
Bernie
Click here to give --- It’s Free

BOO!

Hi There
Just a quick post and a simple card today. I’ve never made a Halloween card before, just never had the need for one.  This is what I came up with when I was asked to make one. 

I don’t have any Halloween stamps, papers etc. I found this spider web on the net and printed it on to Transparency Film. I used my Spellbinders Classic Ovals Lg to cut the transparency, a window in my black card base and an orange frame. I printed and hand cut the sentiment and added green paper on the inside to finish.

Have an Amazing Day!

Blessings
Bernie 
Click here to give --- It’s Free

Happy Birthday Matt

Hi There!  I'd like to welcome my new followers.  Lovely to have you, hope you'll drop by often and find some inspiration.

Believe it or not they actually called and asked if they could deliver the bed a half hour early. Now that’s a first.  I barely got it made before Jim got into it.  Once he did it was so comfy he took a lovely nap. Although his back and legs are still hurting him the bed is so much more comfortable he is slowly feeling better. Hopefully between the new bed and our wonderful chiropractor his aches and pain will soon be gone.

Today is our baby boy, Matt's birthday. Gosh it’s hard to believe he is the father of a ten year old now. When he isn’t working hard or being a wonderful father he loves to play. His favorite toy is his motorcycle. 

It took some time but I found a picture of a bike like his on the web, re-sized it and printed it.  The sentiment was computer generated. I found a piece of card in my black scraps file that had been embossed with a lattice EF.   I found the prefect yellow for the layering.  This looks much more vibrant IRL.

We wont be able to celebrate Matt’s birthday until Thursday but I've promised to make his favorite fried chicken dinner. He isn’t a fan of cake so I’ll surprise him with another of his favorites, Malasadas, Portuguese donuts.

Thanks for stopping by The Closet today.  Your comments are appreciated.
Have An Amazing Day!
Blessings
Bernie
Click here to give --- It’s Free

Happy Birthday Ladies

Hello! Have you been up to anything interesting? I spent my day crawling in and out of bed. No I’m not ill, I was testing mattresses. What a dreadful chore. I felt like Goldilocks. To hard, to soft, and hopefully just right. We shall see after it’s delivered and slept on for a night or two. Some sales people are so frustrating. I told one gentleman I wanted a firm mattress. He lead me over to a bed and said I think you’ll like this. I sank into what must have been a foot of soft foam, it literately engulfed me. I actually needed his help to get out of it. How can anyone sleep on something like that, I would be afraid of being smothered in my sleep. Of course I felt my carpeted floor would have been softer and more comfortable then others. So glad it’s not something I need to do often. It’ll be delivered tomorrow. Between 11AM and 1 PM, just hope it’s here by bed time.

Seems a lot of the lovely ladies in my life were born in October. Six in 11 days. Pushed for time I decided to make them all the same card, assembly line fashion.

The pattern paper is from DCWV Linen Closet Matstack. Everything else were scraps and from my stash. For my medallion I printed my sentiment on white, cut and embossed with Petite Scalloped Circles Large and inked the edges with ink dusters and TH broken china. I then layered it on blue, cut and embossed in the same manor. I was quite pleased with the effect of the layering and embossing.
Thanks for stopping by and for the time you take to leave a comment. They each make my day a little brighter.
Have an Amazing Day!
Blessings

Bernie
Click here to give --- It’s Free

Piece of Cake

Hi There

Wow I can’t believe it’s Friday already. It’s still cool here but at least the rains have stopped. They say we should have a very comfortable weekend. Hope they are right and it will be nice where ever you are as well.

I received one of those wonderful and extremely rare 20% off entire purchase coupons in the mail two weeks ago. Why do that do that, it all but drives me mad having to wait so long before I can use it but it did give me time to plan what I would get. Of course everything on my list was already on sale. Fiskars punches were all 30% off, Spellbinders and stamps were 40% off. Adhesives, a few embellishments and some card stock were also on sale. I got two little flower punches, Labels Three, two stamps, a few embellishments and some adhesives. Only thing that stopped me was my limited budget. The clerk rang me up and congratulated me. He said it was rare to have the total saving to be larger then the total spent. He is new and doesn’t know me. LOL!



My little girl’s birthday card was inspired by Di of Pixies Crafty Workshop  and Jules of Always with a Heart. Jules inspires me to use my scraps as often as possible and I love her punched flowers. So much so I bought those little punches just so I could make some. Of course the color is inspired by Di. Di do you recognize the ribbon? I couldn’t just toss it out.

I used MS Cherished hearts and saved the tiny hearts, they are just so cute I have a difficult time tossing them. I stamped the little cake and colored it with color pencils and DecoColor liquid gold then cut and embossed with Labels Three. I did the same with the black but it was to wide so I hand cut along the embossed mark to get a thinner edge. I added those tiny hearts and a little glitter glue to each. A Jules flower and bit of ribbon and some rhinestones to finish.
If she hasn't close the playground gates I'll be entering this in
JULES' CRAFTY SNIPPET CHALLENGE - WEEK 39
Edit:
I have decided to enter my card into the
Cute Card Thursday challenge, where they want to see cake on our cards.

Thanks for stopping by. And Thank You for the comments you leave.
Have an Amazing Day!

Blessings
Bernie
Click here to give --- It’s Free

Green

Hi There,

I have a quick card today. I simply opened my green scraps folder and shazam a masculine birthday card. Well it wasn’t quite that quick.  A little trimming, the ATG and it was done. CAS

I’m running off to Jules’ play ground now. Join me?  Jules’ Crafty Snippet Challenge - Week 39 










Thanks for stopping by. I truly treasure each and every kind word you leave me.
Have an Amazing Day!


Blessings
Bernie
Click here to give --- It’s Free

Black and White

Hi There,

Hope you are enjoying the weather where you are. It’s turned wet and cool, Fall is definitely here.

I promised something totally different today and I think this qualifies. I wanted to send my sister a little something. She loves black and white and my pile of white scraps is getting out of control so this card was born. I cut some strips, punched them all with MS Daisy border punch and layered them on to a scrap of black card stock. A bit of ribbon, a layered flower, a feather and a little tag finished it off. Quick and Easy!

I'll be entering this in JULES' CRAFTY SNIPPET CHALLENGE - WEEK 39
Stop by and see Jules' lovely snippet creations, have a run thru the playground and see what everyone else has to share.  I am sure you will be inspired to use up a few of your snippets / scraps.

Thanks for stopping by and for the time you take to leave a comment. They each make my day a little brighter.
Have an Amazing Day!

Blessings
Bernie
Click here to give --- It’s Free

I’m back!

Hi There Blog Friends

I hope you are all well. Thank you all for your concern and well wishes. Jim and I are doing fine.

It seems blogger is acting up again. I have not been able to comment on several of your blogs. Rest assured I have been dropping by and will comment as soon as I am able to do so again.

Look at what I’ve been up too! 

My hair dresser asked me to make up a few sample baby shower invitations. I gave her six to pick from. I must have been out of my mind when I offer her one with TWELVE layers! It really was the cutest one of the bunch but just because you can doesn’t mean you should. I nearly lost the will to live before I finally finished them. Thankfully they are all done and ready to be delivered.

The little ducks are from Spellbinders Nursery Time set.  I thought it was Soooo cute until I had to run it thru the Cuttlebug 75 times!  Rather then run them thru another 75 time to emboss them I simply used my stylus from the back then turned them over and colored the wing and eye with my Bic marker.  I died my bakers twine to match with the same Bic marker. 
This was my first time making invitations.  Lessons learned are always priceless. The most important lesson is Never Ever offer anything with so many layers and nearly as important, my time is valuable and I should charge for it no matter how sweet the customer is.

My Mojo is back and so is my enthusiasm.  Yippee!  I’ll be back tomorrow with something completely different to share. I promise you it wont be yellow or green and it definitely will not have any stinking cute little ducks on it. 
Have an Amazing Day!

Blessings
Bernie
Click here to give --- It’s Free

Update and Thank Yous

I want to thank everyone of you who expressed concern for Jim and sent such warm well wishes. It meant a lot that you took the time to drop a line. Thankfully the fires are out, the air is clear and Jim is doing well.
A special Thank You to Mary Marsh of The Charmed Life for the lovely blog candy. Sorry I didn’t take a photo of it all but Mary was extremely generous. 

I am sorry for my long absences. I took an unplanned last minuet trip. With Jim’s illness I am not often able to leave him for long. Whenever he feels well enough I drive the three hours to visit with friends and family.

Earlier this year I purged my craft closet and gave my niece Maggie everything I no longer needed for her scrapbooking. Since then I found some wonderful storage at a yard sale and I’ve reorganized The Closet. This eliminated my need for quite a few old storage items including several sets of leftover metal grid storage cubes. As crafters we all have a tendency to make a mess but picture a 16 yr. old crafter with no storage system at all. Maggie and I spent several fun filled hours setting up cubes and organizing her supplies, much to her mother‘s delight and relief. When her parents came home from work I left her to do the finishing touches. They are such sweet friends and I do wish I could have spent more then a few hours with them but my time was limited.

It was a joy to visit with my son and family. Just sitting and get caught up with my oldest son was wonderful. My 16 yr. old grandson thought it was fun to put his arm around my shoulders and look down at me. He is 6’1” tall and still growing. My DIL and granddaughter took me to a few thrift and craft shops which was a lot of fun and I did find a few bargains. All to soon I was on my way home again.

As some of you know I have a bad neck and periodically it goes out on me. Once again I turned my head 'just so' and out it went. Thankfully I am recovering but I haven't felt like creating or even visiting any of you. I plan to take a few more days to heal completely.

My Mojo has taken a hike to parts unknown and taken my inclination to create with it. I’ll be back when they’ve returned and I have something to share with you. In the mean time I will be stopping by to visit with you all again.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks again to all of you who have so kindly left your sweet comments and well wishes for Jim.
Have an Amazing Day!
Blessings
Bernie
Click here to give --- It’s Free

Kick Up Your Heels

Hi There; Sad news this morning. There is a forest fire raging here in SE Washington State. Although St. John’s Monastery and Bakery were saved by the feisty nuns and firefighters many homes and barns have been lost. Thankfully no injuries have been reported but the fire is totally out of control and the outlook is grim. Thousands have been evacuated.

I’ve mentioned before my Jim is ill, he has end stage emphysema. Although we are in no danger from the fire the air is filled with smoke which is making breathing much more difficult for Jim and others with breathing problems. Please keep our wonderful firefighters and those suffering in any way as a result of this fire in you thoughts and prayers.

I did something new to me on my card. I stamped one boot masked it then stamped the second one. It may sound silly but I was just tickled that it turned out so well. Learned a lesson, don’t mask with cardstock it leaves a little gap at the edge, paper next time. In this case quickly remedied with a marker. I watercolored the boots then heat embossed silver EP on the spurs. Big Scalloped Squared was used to cut and emboss. A few iron on studs were glued to the corner and a bit of jewelry hemp to finish.

Have an Amazing Day!
Blessings
Bernie
Click here to give --- It’s Free

Happy Birthday Pat

Seems summer isn’t going to give up without a fight here. It’s gotten a bit to warm for my liking but when I think of what the weather has been doing around the US I realize I am truly blessed. My heart and prayers goes out to those who have lost homes, businesses, crops and loved ones as a result of the dreadful weather this year.

My card today is for our dear friend Pat.   Pat, his wife Lynne and Jim and I have been friends for over 25 years. We now live three hours apart and with Jim’s poor health we don’t see them as often as we’d like but distance can’t hurt a true friendship.

I spent more time taking pictures of this card then I did making it. No matter what I did I couldn’t capture it properly. The colors are much more vibrant IRL. In a way this card designed it’s self. When I pulled out my green scraps file the branch fell out onto another lighter green scrap. Wa La a card was born. A little glue, a bit of jewelry hemp, a sentiment and it was done. Just wish all masculine cards would be so easy to make.

Have an Amazing Day!
Blessings
Bernie
Click here to give --- It’s Free

Happy Birthday Susie

Hello! I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe Labor Day weekend. We all enjoyed our BBQ. It was so good to see Donna be able to enjoy food again. We all enjoyed the food.  Although we each only ate a few bites of each there were so many different dishes we were all so full we could barely move afterwards. All in all we couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day. Even the weather was beautiful.

My card today is for Susie, my dear friend, of 50 years.  We started out as friends in a prior life as neither of us are really that old.  :} The doily is the pointy end of a large heart shaped doily. I used one of the organza flowers I made.  Spellbinders Foliage, MS punch and a few curled Cloth Stem Wires were used for the greenery. I have a Possibilities Box. When I find something I think I may possibly be able to use one day I put it in that box. I found the stings of beads in there.  I believe they originally held a toy to the box of my grandson's Christmas gift. My butterfly was a complete surprise to me. I stamped it with chalk ink on to velum, heat embossed it with Sparkle EP and cut it out. It was so pale it blended into the card so I decided to watercolor the back of it. I didn’t realize velum would curl up when wet but I was thrilled with the result. A bow and sentiment finished it off. I will be trying the velum treatment again. Wonder if velum has a vertical and horizontal to it as paper does.            

Have an Amazing Day!Blessings
Bernie
Click here to give --- It’s Free

Candies

Hi There
This is my second post today scroll down for a peek into my garden.

Some of the lovely ladies I follow regularly are offering candy this month. I’ve added links to them on my side bar.

Mina is offering a lovely Multi Frame Square Snowflakes die. While you are visiting her blog have a look around. Mina always uses the most stunning images and does amazing coloring with distress inks.

Lori has some marvelous ribbons and a whole lot more up for grabs. Lori uses the sweetest images and colors them so beautifully with her Copics. Have a look around her blog; I’m sure you will enjoy her cute and cheerful cards.

Brenda’s candy is a surprise this month but I’m sure it’ll be wonderful. Brenda is a magician with a brayer and makes the most lovely cards. You must see what she does for yourself.

Good luck.
Have an Amazing Day!
Blessings
Bernie
Click here to give --- It’s Free

From the Garden

Busy, Busy, Busy. No time for crafting so I thought I’d share a few flowers blooming in my garden.

Queen Elizabeth

Love

Double Delight

Montezum

No Name

Confused Oriental Poppy Shouldn't be in bloom this time of year.

Don't know what this is called but it is considered a weed here.  The angels planted it and I wanted to see just how tall it would get.  It's as tall as the roof and still growing.  Excuse all the seed heads, a friend is coming to collect them this weekend. 

Have an Amazing Day!
Blessings
Bernie
Click here to give --- It’s Free

Quick and Easy

Today we are having a big old fashion BBQ. We are celebrating our daughter Donna’s completing her breast cancer treatments. The Chemo was rough to say the least.  We had promised her when she could enjoy food again we would fix her anything and everything she wanted. This weekend she has chosen everything.  Jim and I have been busy preparing.  When they arrive we plan to sit back and relax while the kids take over the finishing touches, the grilling and most importantly the clean up.   There will only be eight of us but the menu is big enough to feed an army. Everyone will be going home with a dogie bag.

Today I have three quick and easy note cards. I like to have a few on hand. I got out the scraps files and pulled out the biggest scraps I could find. If I don’t use up those big scraps they have a way of turning into lots of little scraps. I stamped each piece with Versa Mark and used a border punch on each. I found pieces of lace just long enough for each card in my fiber scraps jar. Added a scarp square of white and a flower. 
Another one for Jules' Crafty Snippet Challenge Week 34

On the pink I used MS Cherish Hearts punch and used the little pink hearts left after punching on the corners. I was short one so I put the corner of another scrap into the punch and punched out just one tiny heart.

On the blue I used a Fiskars scalloped punch and some rhinestones.

On the green I used MS Lattice Arch punch and half pearls.










Here in the US it is the long Labor Day Weekend signaling the end of summer. I hope everyone will have wonderful weekend and you will all be safe. Please Don’t drink and drive. If you must be on the roads please watch out for those who do.
Have an Amazing Day!
Blessings
Bernie
Click here to give --- It’s Free

Happy Birthday John (again)

Hello; Just a quick post today. My card is for our dear friend John who lives in Valencia, Spain.  John and my Jim worked together in Saudi Arabia nearly forty years ago and have been friends, more like brothers, ever since.  Over the years John and his lovely wife, Beryl, have visited us a few times and we have all become quite close.   

This entire card was made from scraps. The corrugated bit was packing around some salt and pepper shakers I purchased years ago. I am entering this in Jules' Crafty Snippet Challenge Week 34














THANKS for stopping by and thank you for your lovely comments.

Have an Amazing Day!
Blessings
Bernie
Click here to give --- It’s Free

Butterfly Rainbow

Hi There
September, really! I need to get a job. When I worked the weeks were endless and weekends, especially long holiday weekends, could never come soon enough. Now that I’m retired the weeks and months just wiz by. I need to get a job and slow the clock down.

My card today was inspired by and made possible by the LOVELY and EXTREMELY GENEROUS DI. When I complained of my unsuccessful attempts with the brayer and assorted blending techniques Di sent me these wonderful Inkylicious Ink Dusters. 

Thank You Di!! I love them although I’m not crazy about TH distress inks. I only bought them this week but they seem rather dry. I can actually see a line showing the pads aren’t completely saturated. I found I had to pounce on the pad quite hard before I got ink on my brush and I got some bristle marks when I pounced on my card. I didn’t have the proper color for this card but in playing I found my old Adirondack inks were much easier to work with giving me a much softer result. Back to my card. When Di posted her card here Annie suggested a rainbow. I remembered an old paint company’s ad where they’d used butterflies to show their rainbow of colors available.

I set about to recreate a scale down version of that ad. I pulled out my scraps and punched MS butterflies, then put them all in a Swiss dot EF and ran them thru the Cuttlebug then glued them to my cloud background. The sentiment is a clear $1 stamp.
I am entering this in Jules' Crafty Snippet Challenge Week 34  








Thank you for taking the time to visit today. Your comments are greatly appreciated.

Have an Amazing Day!

Blessings
Bernie
Click here to give --- It’s Free

Happy Birthday Dave!

Hi there ladies; I’d like to extend a warm welcome to my new followers, so happy to have you. I hope you will come back soon and find some inspiration.

Wow it’s been a while since I’ve posted a card. I have been busy. I had to make the most of my time with my grandson before he went back in school this week.  It'll be a while before he has another brake.   
Sept. will be a busy card month for me. A few of my girl friends and several guys will be celebrating birthdays. Since the girls may check in I will post their cards after they’ve been received. The guys are not likely to stop by here so I think I can safely post the cards I’ve made for them. Gosh do you have as much trouble creating for men as I do? I must admit I really need to stretch my creative muscle when making a masculine card.
 

Today’s card is for my brother in law Dave. Dave’s eye sight isn’t the best so I wanted to make him something that really popped. I sat the card on a log out in the garden in full sunlight just to show how much it shines. It’s a gate fold card. I used my homemade stamp positioner to stamp my flourish with Versa Mark then heat embossed with silver EP before stamping and embossing the next one. I used Starburst Crayola printer paper for the scallop, the sentiment and the border around it. The sentiment was cut with QuickKutz Cookie Cutter Die and the scalloped border with Fiskars punch.

Thank you for taking the time to visit today. Your comments are greatly appreciated.

Have an Amazing Day!

Blessings
Bernie
Click here to give --- It’s Free