Live, Laugh, Love - FWF 8-21

Awwwwwww......so sweet!

Hi, Friends....

I am here in Kennewick, Washington where we are staying during our evacuation time.  We have had some scary incidents with the big wildfires that are around us, but so far our house is still standing.  We are thankful to the Lord for that!!

I brought just a very few craft supplies with me when I evacuated......still keeping my fingers crossed that my Big Shot, dies, and embossing folders will still be there when this is all finished!!!  I did bring some layered embossed backgrounds, so I made a very simple card for my Unity - Friends with Flair project for this week using one of them.  Love the texture and finished look this technique brings.

I used a Unity stamp from my new grab bag I received.  (THANKS, Unity!!!)  So much fun!!!  This wonderful sentiment is stamped with Versafine ink in Vintage Sepia.  My background is made from some gorgeous foiled DCWV scraps layered onto a backing piece and then dry embossed with my Darice - Interlocking Circles folder.  The matted sentiment panel is up on dimensional foam squares.

That's all for now.  I will link this up to Unity when the FWF post goes live!  Have a wonderful weekend and please keep our community and firefighters in your prayers.  Thanks so much for your encouraging comments!

<3
Janis

Thank you for the honor of entering this card in the following challenges:
1. Unity - Friends with Flair.
2. Word Art Wednesday Challenge #197 - Anything Goes Family Friendly
3. Pixie's Snippets Playground Week #190
4. Little Scrap Pieces Show-it-Off Saturday Linky Party

Crafting in the Dark before Evacuation

This is not our house....but it looks like it could be.  We have not needed to evacuate our pets, yet, but we have 6 cat carriers ready for as many as we can stuff inside without them squabbling too much!

Hi, Friends.....

As some of you realize, my granddaughter and I have evacuated our house because of the raging wildfires surrounding us.  I hope the rest of the family will join us tomorrow.  We lost power for 4 days....but that is much better than the projected 2 week outage that we had feared.  Our house is mostly out of danger now, but we have neighbors who are still in very high-risk areas.  This has been extremely scary and we owe an incredible debt of gratitude to the courageous firefighters and to our neighbors who have been on the lines fighting to save our community. Some literally have been very close to losing their lives to the flames.   Our entire community and the town of Kamiah in the valley (besides other areas) would have been totally in ashes without their help.  How can you even begin to thank people for that kind of dedication????

During the power outage before we evacuated, my son, daughter, granddaughter and I made small thank you cards to be placed in the firefighter lunches that were being prepared each day by the community.  Here are some photos of us crafting in the dark, with headlights and flashlights for illumination.  (Sorry the photos are not very good quality...taking pictures in the dark isn't that great!!!)  We big people included handwritten expressions of our gratitude, but Andrea, age 4 (nearly 5 years old), helped with cutting the cardstock to size and stamping the sentiments inside.

My chair is vacant, since I am taking the photos.

  

My daughter, Betsy, and her daughter, Andrea.

 

My son, James, who also has worked like crazy to help secure our property.

Here are our cards all in a pile.  Some of the 4 yr old stamping is a tad bit catty-whompus!  :)

These extremely small tokens of our thanks can never approach expressing our appreciation to these brave people for risking their lives for us.  We are humbled and so grateful to the Lord for His protection.  So far our house has been spared.  We don't know what the next few days will hold.  We appreciate your prayers for the safety of our communities and for that of all firefighters across the West who are giving such dedicated service.  

We can never repay you brave people, but we give you our undying thanks.

<3 
Janis 

Thank you for the honor of entering this project in the following challenges:
1. Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Kids Summer Vacation Challenge  

2. DL.ART Thankful Thursday Challenge #162 - Thank You
3. Little Scrap Pieces - Show it Off Saturday Linky Party

Easter - With Embossing Techniques Background

Not sure how they got these kitties to stay in there!

 



Hi, Friends.....

I am here to share a card I made back at Easter time but hadn't ever posted.  Recently, I was asked to give a little workshop on dry embossing to a 4H family that was doing Cardmaking.  I had sooooooooo much fun and this is one of the cards I took to show them what you can do with dry embossing.








 




I used two techniques for dry embossing on this card.  For the cross, I inked my Darice - Faith Words in Cross folder with Distress Inks and misted it before putting in my white cardstock.  I cut around the cross after the piece was completely dry.

















For the floral background piece, I die cut scraps of patterned paper with my Sizzix Originals - Build a Lilac Die and glued the flowers onto my cardstock, and then I embossed it with my Darice - Cherry Blossom folder.  After that, I double embossed it by brayering some Versamark over the surface and heat embossing with white powder.

Some pretty Prima and Petaloo flowers (with rhinestone and sequin centers) and scraps of patterned paper for background panels finished up this card.  I love the cool spring-like colors on this card.  It reminds me of the fresh, rain-kissed look and smell of flowers after a spring shower.  Can you tell I am wilting in the heat and dreaming of cooler days????  :)  

I hope everyone is staying safe in the heat.  There are bad fires in our area.....over 100 individual lightning strike fires in the last 24 hours.....and more storms in the forecast.  Right now, my daughter is helping a place where she works get ready to evacuate.  I don't think it will threaten our house, but I pray it stays away from other people's homes, too.

Thanks for visiting my blog and leaving all your wonderful comments!!!

<3
Janis

Thank you for the honor of entering this card in the following challenges:
1. DRS Challenge #186 - Dry Embossing
2. Pixie's Snippets Playground Week #189 - Use Snippets
3. Inspired by Stamping Inspiration Challenge #96 - Floral Pattern Inspiration 
4. Word Art Wednesday Challenge #196 - Anything Goes Family Friendly
5. Mod Squad Challenge Blog - Heat Embossing

WINNER of my 100 Follower Giveaway!!!!

Hi, Friends.......

I am here to announce the winner of my 100 Follower Giveaway.   Thank you to all who entered.  I was so delighted that the prize I chose looked interesting to so many of you.  This giveaway was open only to USA addresses, but so many of my international followers left their congratulations that I am going to have an easy mailing giveaway for internationals only SOON!!!  But I have to come up with a prize first.  :)

So.......without further ado.....the randomly-drawn winner of this prize:

 is...............................SHartl 

Congratulations!!!!!!  I have emailed you.  :)

<3
Janis

Let It Snow......Anything is better than FIRES and 100 degrees!!!

Edited to add:
I am linking up my card to this week's Unity - Friends with Flair since I did not get another Unity card made.  We have a big wildfire near us and have been helping other families evacuate.  The fire is still about 3/4 mile away from us, but we are getting ready to evac in case we need to.  We appreciate your thoughts and prayers!




Hi, Friends....

The prediction this week is for 101 degrees on Wednesday.  Can I hear a collective groan?????  (Ughhhh....)  Thank you.  Do I have A/C????  No.  Does my house have good ventilation so it cools off at night?  Marginal.  So.....can you blame me for making Christmas cards lately?????  lol....

When I saw this Mojo Monday sketch, I first thought about birthday, but then I decided the star reminded me of Christmas so that's the direction I went.











I stamped a cute little Unity grab bag greeting on a scrap of cardstock and heat embossed with clear powder.  This might end up being my Friends with Flair card for Friday since it is possible I will be away some this week.  I thought it was brilliant of me actually to plan ahead that many days!  (Five days... Ha!)

My focal panel is a double-embossed background that I made last winter and had leftover in my stash.  It is dry-embossed with my Darice - Snowflakes folder and then covered with Versamark and various embossing powders in deep purple and with glitter.  Then I brayered more Versamark over the raised portions and heat embossed with silver powder to make the snowflakes more visible.   This has a non-stop sparkle that I wish photographed better.


 My shiny ornaments are die-cut using my Spellbinders - Holiday Tags with a couple of colors from my DCWV Stack - Foiled.  My background papers are from the Echo Park - Winter Wishes collection.  

Other supplies used include:
Versafine Ink - Onyx Black
Silver photo corners 

Hope this card helps you feel cooler if you are in the middle of the summer sweltering heat.  I think it cooled me down a degree or two.  Thanks for stopping by.

<3 
Janis

Thank you for the honor of entering this card in the following challenges:

1. Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge #409
2. Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Make a Plan
3. DRS Challenge #186 - Dry Embossing
4. Little Scrap Pieces - Show it Off Saturday Linky Party
5. Moving Along With The Times August Challenge - Snow in Summertime
6. Pixie's Snippets Playground Week #189 - Use Snippets
ETA:
7. Unity - Friends with Flair

Happiest of Birthdays - FWF 8-7-15

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HEY, EVERYONE: Don't miss my 100-Follower Giveaway!!!
Only a few days left.....
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Hi, Friends.....

I am here with my Friday project for this week's Unity - Friends with Flair.  Today I used a birthday balloon stamp from Unity - Far Better Things Ahead.  I got brave and stamped it with Versamark ink directly onto a pretty second-generation watercolor background I made from one of my marker "refill water" backgrounds.  Then I heat-embossed it with gold powder.  Salmon pink and gold???  YUMMY!!!!

I doodled a string for the balloon with a gold pen from my Sakura Gelly Roll Metallic Gel Pen Set and mounted the panel on a glittery gold mat. Then I tied a matching ribbon around the two panels and mounted it on a deep salmon card base.  I LOVE the delicate pink with the metallic gold.  

Hope you like this card.  It went together really fast since I had the background already made.  I think this will go to my sister-in-law who loves pink and has a birthday later this month.  She never looks at my blog, so I am safe.  :)

Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend.  Our weather finally is a little bit cooler (in the low to mid-80s) and it sure is nice after the 90s!!!  Stay cool!

<3
Janis

Thank you for the honor of entering this card in the following challenges:
1. Unity - Friends with Flair
2. Craft Stamper August Take It Make It Challenge - Use Pens or Pencils
3. Stamp and Create August Challenge - One for the Girls
4. Cards in Envy - It's a Birthday Party
5. Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Tie it Up
6. Word Art Wednesday Challenge #195 - Anything Goes Family-Friendly
7. DL.ART August Linky Challenge

Summer and Blue Jeans

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HEY, EVERYONE: Don't miss my 100-Follower Giveaway!!!
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Hi, Friends......

I am back with a fun little summery card for The Paper Girls' Forever in Blue Jeans challenge.  As soon as I saw this challenge I knew I wanted to use my adorable Great Impressions - Pocket of Flowers stamp.  I originally intended to watercolor the image....but after I stamped it with Versafine Ink in Majestic Blue and heat embossed it with clear powder, I found myself loving it uncolored!

I added some scrap denim flowers die cut with my Sizzix Originals - Build a Lilac Die.  This is one of those big huge bulky original dies....you know the ones I am talking about, right?  I got this on clearance quite some time back and I LOVE it so much.  The small flowers are perfect for using up my little scraps, and it cuts through ANYTHING!!!  No going back and forth to get a clean cut with this monstrosity!!!  Nope.  It cut through the denim like it was warm butter.  

Some denim patterned paper from DCWV, rhinestones, and a bit of thrift store eyelet lace finished up this card.   I am delighted with the monochromatic look.  The blue and white remind me of a fresh summer breeze coming in the window.  Considering it is 95 degrees at my house right now, the thought of a cool breeze is quite refreshing!  

Hope you enjoyed my card.  Thank you all for the awesome response to my 100-Follower Giveaway.  I was overwhelmed by the number of international commenters who sent me congratulations.  I am humbled and grateful.  I really feel bad that this current giveaway is only for USA addresses because of the heavy paper pads.  So, I plan to have an "easy mailing" giveaway exclusively for my internationals in the near future.  Hooray!!!

Hope you are enjoying your weekend!!!

<3
Janis


Thank you for the honor of entering this card in the following challenges:
1. The Paper Girls Challenge #84 - Forever in Blue Jeans
2. Great Impressions Customer Gallery
3. DL.ART Thankful Thursday Challenge #161 - Summertime
4. Little Scrap Pieces Show-It-Off Saturday Linky Party
5. Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes
6. Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week #188