Merry Christmas

Just a note to everyone wishing you a very Merry Christmas, that all your wishes come true. Take care.

Smile

World Card Making day was Sunday October 1st, so I decided to make this card.  I felt like making someone smile, just because I felt like it.  What have you been up to lately.

Have a beautiful day!
Gloria

Thank you

It's been about 5 weeks since I last posted.  I'm done, over it, shook it off and need to push myself to keep on going.  Let me start by saying that we went to New York to a party and to visit family.  Well I made a card and a keepsake box for our nephew's First Communion, and a 12x12 anniversary album for my SIL, did I take pictures of them? No. Why? I forgot (shame overwhelms me right now, if you could only see, really).  Moving on.

I would like to thank everyone who left a comment or emailed me be regarding my sister, thank you all for your kind words. Next.

You know how I have a hoarding problem nice collection of paper, well someone has to tell these paper manufacturers to stop making so many cute pattern paper pads, I want them all!!! there I said it, I admit it, I want more, well maybe I can start buying 6x6 pads instead, don't have many of those.  See no problem here.

I now leave you with more thank you cards I made. Thank you.

Pay no attention to the one that's completely cropped, I totally cropped out the faux stitching, just experimenting and not sure if I like it.  Goodbye.

Where did it go?

My mojo that is.  I have a list of things that I want/need to do but can't seem to find my mojo.  Have you seen it? if so please let me know.

This is a card that I made for one of my brothers, he obviously golfs, well both of my brothers do.  It came together starting with a golf ball I debossed it so that it resembled the dents of an actual ball, then came the scenery.

Looking through my posts I stumbled upon one, from back in October, that I never published. How that happened, I don't know but here is the actual post from back then:

This is a Vegas tag mini I have been working on.  Some of the photos were blocked for privacy purposes, but you can still see the pages and a couple of inserts and tags peeking through.  There is room for 24 photos and is 4-1/2 x 8".

 

 Have a great day and don't forget to create!
Gloria

Hope

Her name was Esperanza, which means hope, but she had none. My sister passed away yesterday She was surrounded by her kids at her home, just the way she wanted. Love and miss you!
Gloria

Update

When visiting family I find that it's always hard to say goobye since we are far away and we are big time cryers.  Specially this time because I gave a final goodbye to one my sisters.  She is the second oldest of my siblings and has Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease.   This disease attacks the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that send messages to the muscles controlling voluntary movements in our body, since the muscles are not moving, they start shrinking (all of the them) with the exception of the eye muscles, which she still has full movement and control of.  Life expectancy is 2-5 years, even though few may live to 8 years or beyond.  She was officially diagnosed in September of 2009.  

There is no cure for ALS, only a very very expense drug that can slow the progression and give maybe an extra 3 months to live but not guarranteed, she opted not to take it nor go to a nursing home, she does have hospice care and now a full-time nurse during the night. 

This is emotionally draining for her and who surround her. It is very hard seeing someone you love in pain, and not be able to do anything about it.  My sister survived many years in an abusive marriage, raising 5 kids. After she divorced she went to school and bought her own home.  She loved gardening, and now can't get her hands dirty planting flowers, DIY projects and complain about a splinter when building something, something she's had a taste for but can't chew, she can't bend over to pick up a crumb from the floor (what can I say we all have a bit of OCD), she can't even scrath her own nose or sometimes lift her own head without help.  

How can I call and tell her about my day, or how exhausted I am because I just finished cleaning, or that I have a headache or what I made for dinner when she now has a hard time swallowing something as simple as jello, everything has to be liquified for her, not only is it hard to swallow but exhausting for her too. It is even getting difficult understanding her when she talks.

I pray for her every day, at the begining it was hoping that the doctors where wrong and it wasn't ALS but something that could be cured with surgery or therapy.   Once fully diagnosed praying that she wouldn't get depressed and enjoy the time she had left, and now I just pray she will be at peace and won't feel scared the moment she dies.

I promise my next post will be something crafty, maybe.

Family Mini

This Wednesday I will be leaving to see my family, so I won't be blogging for a bit.  There are a few projects that I have not posted yet, therefore I will leave you with a Father's Day card and a family mini to ponder on and post the rest on my return.

Have a great week!

Altered Box

Hope you guys are having nice weather...it's burning here in TX today's the high is 100, that is HOT as hell (I've been told, don't want to find out thank you very much).

I liked this box because I saw it as a blank canvas and figured I could paint or stain it.  For some reason I didn't know what colors to use so I went online and was on LollyChops' website and was totally inspired.  Since Lolly loooves teal and I like how it looks with white and my box is already white (score! no need to paint).  Anywho...here is the before.

And after adding some Teal Love.

Gloria

DCWV Challenge Top Ten

Well I was one the top ten picked by Erin at Die Cuts With a View blog, for the May-stack-aholic template challenge (remember from my previous post here).  And, I was also selected to win a prize (thank you Random.org may I meet you one day), so I can't wait to get my prize, could it be another paper stack?!   Since I only have at least 100 some stacks.  Love paper but you already knew that.
Now I just don't know where I will be putting these layouts, since they are random and created on the spur of the moment.
Have an excellent day!
Gloria

Strike a Pose

Hello all, hope everyone is doing well.  Here is a layout that I submitted to Erin at DCWV's blog.  Haven't been into layouts lately but since I {heart} DCWV paper so much I figured I enter the challenges, to force myself to use the paper I hoard have.

Gloria

A Couple of Projects

Ok, so I have been absent, that is life, that is my life.  My mind and hands have been very busy with things I am working on, like end-of-year gifts for teachers which includes thank you cards, gift cards and handmade pomagranate hand scrub (yes, I sometimes go overboard).  I am also working on a few albums and greeting cards to sell next month at a scrapbook sale.  Also, there is a major project I took on which I mentioned before, the 12 x 12 wedding album.

I am going to be posting some photos, in the next few days, of the things I have made.

This first photo is a card for Teacher Appreciation Week.

 These next photos are of mini's I made for both of my little one's home teachers.  I totally love how they came out, that is another thing on my to-do list, make this same mini for me to keep, (why I didn't make all 3 of them at the same time is beyond me).   I did not realize how hard it is to make a group of 3-4 year olds to stay still while looking at the camera at the same time, after a few shots (dozens!!) we got a good one.  They all smiled for their individual shots, it was my lucky day, no doubt.  Each classroom is named after an animal, hence the ducks.  The names and faces were blurred out for privacy reasons, but you have to trust me on this, they all look adorable.

Have a great weekend!!
Gloria

Cards

Hope everyone is doing well.  Have been working on a 12x12 wedding album for a while and will post pictures up in the next couple of days, as soon as I edit the photos (for privacy purposes).  Meanwhile here are a couple of Birthday and Thank You cards that I recently mailed out.

Hope you have an excellent afternoon.
Gloria

Sweet Girl Layout

This is our dog, she is very small as you can see, so I thought I would use her for a challenge at DCWV's Blog that Erin has going on.

The paper for the base of this layout is DCWV Mariposa stack and the solid paper is Mariposa cardstock stack.  This is my favorite stack and don't really like using it because I like it so much.

The flowers are Prima

The butterflies are from a Martha Stewart punch.

 

The leaves and letters are from Sizzix dies.

Thanks for stopping by and have a creative day!

Gloria