Happy 4th!

 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD;

and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. Psalms 33:12

I just thought I would post a Happy 4th to my USA readers!  This is a special anniversary of our independence as it is our 250th!  I am so proud to be an American and so thankful for my country.  Last Sunday in Church we sang some great patriotic hymns and I included the words on two of them:  

God of Our Gathers:  written to celebrate our 100th Anniversary by Daniel C. Roberts

Battle Hymn of the Republic: Written by Julia Ward Howe during the Civel War

America the Beautiful:  written by Katharine Lee Bates and originally titled Pikes Peak, 4th of July 1895

1 O beautiful for spacious skies

for amber waves of grain;

for purple mountain majesties

above the fruited plain!

America! America! God shed his grace on thee,

and crown the good with brotherhood

from sea to shining sea.

America: "My Country Tis of Thee" written by Samuel F. Smith 1832

1. My country,' tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing; land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrims' pride, from every mountainside let freedom ring! 2. My native country, thee, land of the noble free, thy name I love; I love thy rocks and rills, thy woods and templed hills; my heart with rapture thrills, like that above. 3. Let music swell the breeze, and ring from all the trees sweet freedom's song; let mortal tongues awake; let all that breathe partake; let rocks their silence break, the sound prolong. 4. Our fathers' God, to thee, author of liberty, to thee we sing; long may our land be bright with freedom's holy light; protect us by thy might, great God, our King.

I was crying by the time we got finished.  Despite everything that is happening, I love my country and am thankful we live here!

Since I am posting anyway, I thought I would post another card for the House-Mouse & Friends Monday Challenge: Water Fun Midway Inspiration.

I colored this House Mouse image with an assortment of brands of pencils and added Glossy Accents and stamped the sentiment from a SU! set on a MFT die cut cloud.  The wonky rectangle white panel is a die from MFT. (MY Favorite Things)

Here are some photos of how we spent the 4th of July in 2008:

Watching the 4th of July parade in Ketchikan, Alaska from our ship

And here is a scrapbook page of how we spent 4th of July in 2022.

This year, hubby is grilling hamburgers out for the two of us.  You can see that is my ticket to the TSFT party over at Altered Book Lover.

Happy 4th!

Thanks for stopping by!

See you next time.

T stands for Taking Part in AJJ

 Break up your fallow ground, For it is a time to seek the Lord, Till He comes and rains righteousness on you"  Hosea 10:12 NKJV

I decided to submit my scrap layout to the Art Journal Journey challenge this month.  It is hosted this time by Bleubeard & Elizabeth and their theme is Anywhere, Anytime, Any Place, with Anyone.  

I did a layout of the Van Gogh Immersive Experience that our son took me to, when he visited in November.  We thoroughly enjoyed it and learned so much that we hadn't known about Van Gogh.

To start this layout, I masked all but an inch around the outside of a 12x12 page.  I put a stencil on it and used Light and Fluffy modeling paste thru the stencil.  After it was dry I spattered with Fun Stamper Journal silks.  Then I inked around the edges with Tim Holtz Uncharted Mariner Oxide ink.  I took the mask off and added glitter all around the inside of the frame I made.  Then, I added my papers, title and embellishments.

That is it for me today.  Oh, wait a minute, I haven't posted my ticket to TSFT over at Altered Book Lover!

We were at a Chinese New Year event the 17th of this month.  Beautiful decorations and great food and entertainment.  I am having hot tea with my meal.

I am so sorry it is blurry.  I am the worst photographer!  Half the time it was on movie or time lapse.  I don't know how the wrong buttons get pushed on my phone!  But the dancers came by all our tables.

This one came right up in my face and winked at me! LOL

It was really fun.  What about you?  What have you been doing?  What are you drinking today? Show us and join over at Altered Book Lover.

Have a great week!  Thank you for stopping by.

T Stands for December

 And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. Luke 2:7

Hello December!  Can you believe we are into the last month of the year?  I can't!  I suddenly realize I have only 30 some Christmas cards made of the over 60 I need!  At least I got my international cards mailed Saturday.  So, I am planning this blog on the fly as today got away from me.  I didn’t get this done!  

So, I am back today, to post my layout for Art Journal Journey, and also for the 3 in a Row & Number Mix Challenges on A Cherry on Top. The "other" Sharon has posted out theme this month at AJJ as Winter Theme.  I am documenting our first snow on December 1st on this 12x12 scrap page.  I used two different snowflake punches.  I used Stamperia Blue Winter paper and Stories Simple Fresh Snow ephemera.  Thank you, Sharon, for the perfect theme!

I don’t know if I can link to TSFT or not but will try.  Do you see my ticket on my scrap page?

Have a great week!  Thanks for stopping by.  See you next time.

T Stands for Truly Cool

  "I thank my God upon every remembrance of you," Philippians 1:3

Good afternoon! Yes, it is cool here; highs in 70s!   I am enjoying it, going walking and spending time in my craft room.   I have been working on my submission to Art Journal Journey challenge for September.  Mia has challenged us to make our own background.  I had just made a card where I did a color wash with watercolor and still had my paints handy.  So, I started my page with a watercolor wash.  Then I did some background stamping and spraying.  I stamped my title and added a photo I took this Spring on my trail. Be sure and check out the entries at Art Journal Journey.

I used Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors and Tim Holtz Distress Mica stains: Sugary Gumdrop and Wonderland and Frosty Mint.   I stamped the letters with  Stampin' Up inks, and   stamped the Stampendous background writing stamps with Archival black ink.  The panel in back of the photo is a gel print scrap.  I used the weekly art journal sketch from ACOT.

And here is the card I made with the color wash and doodling.

I had fun doodling the people and then hand wrote the sentiment, too. I was just practicing this technique while watching a YouTube video.

That is what I have been doing craft wise and of course we went out to eat, this week to Hog Wild.   We always get the $5.99 special.  He gets the fries for a side and I get the coleslaw, then we split them.  We like the coleslaw on our pulled pork sandwiches to make it Carolina Pork.  Yum, yum!  Sorry, Elizabeth. :)  This time our drinks came with our combos, so he got cola and I mixed the lemonade with the unsweetened tea and had an Arnold Palmer.  This is my ticket to the T Stands for Tuesday over at Altered Book Lover hosted by Elizabeth and Bleubeard.

Then we went to an ice cream social!

I put almost every topping on my ice cream.  It was like I had ice cream on my toppings!  Also, besides the variety of nuts, different candies, and cocoanut, they had chocolate and caramel syrups, cherries, and whipped cream!

Thank you for stopping by.  It is always fun to read the comments and see who visited me.  Happy T Day to the T Gang.  See you next time.

T Stands for Tea

"I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,"  Philippians 1:3

Happy Tuesday!  I am a little late to our tea party!  I wanted to finish a journal layout for Art  Journal Journey for Chris's August Hot Summer (Nights and Days) challenge.  I am still working in my Smash book and using leftover photos from my scrapbooking.  These are Summertime photos from different years. Besides leftover photos, I used leftovers from a Simple Stories kit that I got at a scrap retreat in K.C. Mo. in 2018!  The journaling was printed off with my label maker.  After everything was down, I covered the photos, and spattered with Mango Lemonade Memories Mists.  I kid you not, that is the name!  That could be my ticket to the TSFT, couldn't it?  It is a drink related reference....  but, see below, as I have a more normal ticket.

This is also for a Splitcoaststampers "Summer Fun" Clean and Simple Challenge and for the Art Journal Art Journal Sketch Challenge on A Cherry on Top, (ACOT)

Here is my ticket to TSFT over at Altered Book Lover:  This card is for the Alpha Challenge on Splitcoststampers. The letter this week is F for furniture.  These were gifted dies, so I am excited that I could actually use them!  I layered the scene on a heart embossed panel, another gifted item.  I stamped and punched Just for You from Tea Shoppe, an old retired Stampin' Up! set. This is also for a challenge on A Cherry on Top (ACOT) to use some shiny paper and to use at least 5 sequins.  I inked the edges and over the raised hearts with TH faded jeans Distress Ink.

Thanks for stopping by.  I will see you next time.

T Stands for Taking it Easy

  Delight thyself also in the LORD;

and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

⁵ Commit thy way unto the LORD;
trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. Psalms 37:4-5

By taking it easy, I mean less walking; it is just too hot, and I can't get motivated to get out early! It is just nice to stay in the A/C and play in my craft room.  All week-end I watched videos for the Card Makers for Success Summit.  I got a lot of ideas and have several cards started.  I was inspired to begin making a few Christmas cards.  

Let's get to what I have been working on today.  I looked up the Art Journal Journey Challenge and found that Chris aka Pearshaped Crafting's theme this month is Hot Summer Nights and Days.  Great theme!!  I am journaling/scrapping in my smash book just to use it.  It lay unused for many years!

I used some 49 and Market papers, and ephemera, but the feathery paper was what was in the smash book.  Every page in the smash book has different patterned paper, which makes it nice.  I also entered in the VSBN Challenge on Splitcoaststampers to use a sun on your layout.  Also, it is a submission for the Art Journal sketch on ACOT.  I used some leftover zoo photos, which I liked and really wanted to use.

For our TSFT party over at Altered Book Lover, I show our meal at Bagatelle's recently, with our free cake.  I had a wonderful chicken peach poppy seed salad and soup.  Everything there is always so good, and the portions are always generous.  This time they gave us our dessert right with our meal!  We usually go about once every 5 or 6 weeks.  So good!

Happy T Day!  Stay cool!  Thanks for stopping by.  I will see you next time, dear friends.

T Stands for Tuesday & Art

 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD;

and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. Psalms 33:12

I will try to do another TSFT post!  Doctor appointments and physical therapy take up a lot of time, and Tuesday is also Bible study day.  So, I am scheduling a post but actually doing it on Sunday afternoon.  That is what I did last week, and it worked pretty well.  I just have to remember to link it to Elizabeth's party at Altered Book Lover.  I also want to link to **Art*Journal*Journey* this week, as I did a journal spread for Hallie's Botanical theme.

This is actually called a Smash Book from K& Co.  I have had it for years and decided to start using it for art journal spreads. The size is about 7 x 10 inches, which is just right.

I used 49 and Market ephemera & rub ons.  My photos are printed off of social media of our grandson.  I just thought they were so cute and had to be used somewhere.  I thought this concept worked better than traditional scrapbooking.  I used an art journal sketch off of ACOT, with theme of rectangles, Challenge #31.

Here is my ticket for TSFT:

We love their fries!  My husband gets the double steakburger, but I like the Patty melt, which is on rye.  It is so good, and I am sure none of this is healthy.  But this is a place we only got to about twice a year at most!

I took a photo of a photo hanging up in the establishment.  So cool.

Thanks for stopping by.  Stay cool.  See you next time.

June is Over!

   Enter into his gates with thanksgiving,

and into his courts with praise:

be thankful unto him, and bless his name.  Ps. 100:4

Between Doctors appointments, twice a week trips to physical therapy, and doing physical therapy at home three times a day, Bible study, and just life, June has flown by quickly! I did however get some crafting into the schedule.  I even took part in a 4 -day Prompt and Play Zoom with Tracy Sundue and Heather from Fun Scrapbooking Circle and Scrapbooking Summits.  Each day we had different prompts, but also, a 30-minute time limit.  I finished them all.  We could do any project, card, journal page, scrapbook, just any project.  The first day I did a card, but the other three days I did a scrapbook layout.

I will share the last one we did because the prompts were so interesting.  They had a wheel with National Days for June 27th on it.  They spun it 4 times, so we had our choice of four prompts or could use more than one.  The choices were Nation Helen Keller Day, National Onion Day, National Sunglasses Day, and National Big Dreams Day.  We could interpret it literally or in any way we wanted.

I went with Helen Keller Day, thinking of what this woman overcame in her lifetime.  I am not saying I overcame like she did, not comparing myself to her, just using the overcome for the inspiration for my layout.  I scrapped photos of me, thinking what I had overcome, a bad shoulder, surgery and recovery, at almost 80.  To me that is big accomplishment.  Then I went ahead and incorporated the sunglasses, red for red skinned onion, and the word dream.  I even printed the photos from my Selphy in the 30-minute time limit!  We all showed our end result on the Zoom.  I couldn't believe I could do it that quickly, but wow, what the others did, too! It is amazing how quickly you can do a project when you don't overthink.  I used what was out on my desk, and this swirly cut out paper, as well as the vellum sentiments, I had just run across in my stash and it was fresh in my mind.  So another win was using stash!

 I do want to say I could not have come through this ordeal without the many prayers that were prayed for me and for the strength and healing touch of the Lord.  I am thankful for all the encouragement and help from my husband.  I am thankful for the surgeon, the nurses, and physical therapists.  I am so thankful for the prayers and for how the Lord is healing me.  He after all is the Great Physician.  I trust that eventually I will be completelly healed and able to lift my arm above my head.  One thing I know is I have no pain, unlike before surgery!

My giant cup of water in the hospital photo is my ticket to the Tea Stands for Tuesday party over at Altered Book Lover where our hostess and host are Elizabeth and Bleubeard. They have this party hop every Tuesday (or Monday evening) where we share what we are doing over a beverage of choice.  That is the only requirement, to have a drink reference in your post.  You can join if you do that!

Thanks for stopping by.  See you next time, whenever that is!

T Stands for Totals from CalvinBall

  Create in me a clean heart, O God;

and renew a right spirit within me.
¹¹ Cast me not away from thy presence;
and take not thy holy spirit from me.
¹² Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation;
and uphold me with thy free spirit.
¹³ Then will I teach transgressors thy ways;
and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Psalms 51:10-13

These are Bible verses I try to pray each day.

Even though I could still do another project for CalvinBall today, the 31st, I am done.   My total points were 1020.  Right now, I am 14th in the standings.  First place has almost 4000 points!  My totals included 17 scrapbook layouts, 2 journal pages, 25 place setting favors for our Bible study (with help at our church craft day), 1 junk journal project, 21 cards.  I call that pretty good for one month, and there are some things I didn't bother to count.  I call it a good crafty month.

Since I featured this event in a blog post, I thought I would share this two-page layout I did, about the Chinese New Year event we attended.

I used the place mats on the layout as well as the chopstick sack and fortune, and the invitation.

I am in 14th place now, and sinking lower, but here it was in first place at the beginning. LOL Here is proof, a screen shot. 

And again, it was all for fun, the points don't mean anything!

My ticket for TSFT is in the layout photos.  Be sure and stop over at Bleubeard & Elizabeth's at Altered Book Lover.  They are the host of T Stands for Tuesday.

Thanks for stopping by, I don't know what I will feel like after surgery or whether I can stop by and see you, but will try. 

Happy T Day.

T Stands for Time for CalvinBall

 ¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God;

and renew a right spirit within me.
¹¹ Cast me not away from thy presence;
and take not thy holy spirit from me.
¹² Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation;
and uphold me with thy free spirit.
¹³ Then will I teach transgressors thy ways;
and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Psalms 51:10-13

The above is a prayer I try to pray every day.

Yes, it is time for CalvinBall!  Every March in recent years, I have taken part in this great scrapping event.  It is free and like a game!  Most of all it is great inspiration to get you scrapping those photos you always meant to scrap!  The way it works is Alice adds permanent and temporary items to a list, daily.  If you use those items, you get points.  The fun really begins when you see how many of the items you can get on your layout, or a card, or a junk journal page, or whatever craft project you are working on.  Another fun element is that some days the temporary items are removed, that is why they are called temporary!  If you want to make something with that item, you better do it today, because tomorrow it may be gone.  So fun to see how many points you can get!  And March is usually a big month for me to get craft projects done and to use up all that stash!  For example, ribbon is on the list.  I have drawers of it and forget to use it.  This makes me use it!  I do try to use it in a way that helps my page or project.  Here is more information: CalvinBall

As she adds to both lists every day, (and sometimes removes items), by the end of March you have maybe hundreds of items from which to choose and ultimately get 100 points!  So fun!

Here is layout I did yesterday: From the permeant list I used label, selfie, date, washi, ribbon, & frame.  From the temporary list I used green, sloth, white pen, music notes, and because I shared it on two sites, plus my blog, I also got points for a total of 15 points.

I used washi tape with music notes, and that is 2 points because we can double dip, unless it is a day we can't! This layout is a selfie I took when Be Real (a social app our family got me on) popped up and the selfie included Alice on our Zoom that day.  Oh, and we got points for being at the Zoom, too.   Also note, the sloth ribbon!  I have had that in my stash for several years, and it had never been used!  I like it paired with "Enjoy the moment.''  LOL Oh, well, so fun.  I also entered this in the ACOT 1-3-5-7 challenge.  I used one photo, 3 pieces of washi tape, 3 pieces of drywall tape, 5 different printed papers, (using up scraps) and 7 sloths!

You see my ticket to TSFT on my layout?  

Thanks for stopping by and for saying "hi" so I know you were here.

T Stands for This & That

⁴ Delight thyself also in the LORD;
and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
⁵ Commit thy way unto the LORD;
trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. Psalms 37:4-5

 We still have a lot of snow.  I can't remember when I was away from home.  Maybe when I went to the doctor on January 3rd?  My husband went to the store one day in between our snowstorms and it was terrible out then.  He didn't try going out anymore except to shovel.  Our neighbor shoveled the first snow, but hubby has been doing it since.  He has our driveway clear, but our deck is a lost cause because the sun never hits it. 

I have been working on a scrapbook layout today, even playing with stencils and modeling paste. The photo shows how much the snow was coming down on Thursday, January 9th.  I couldn't even get the door open!

Now for my ticket to TSFT over at Altered Book Lover with our hostess Elizabeth, and our host Bleubeard. We have to include a drink reference on our blog post as an entry to her blog hop party. This is difficult since we haven't been anywhere.  I will dig into my archives.   Here is a photo of a teapot card from 2016! LOL  You are invited to stop over and visit the ones who link up to the party.

Thanks for stopping by.  Please leave a comment so I know you were here.  I really appreciate it. Hopefully, I will see you next week!

My June 2024 Post

Philippians 1:3 "I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,"

 Maybe I can post once a month.  Do you think?  Hello everyone, I am back....  I am anxious to see what everyone is doing. It is a hot Summer already here, in the 90s and even 100s F.  I have been out to Panera with friends this morning, so didn't walk early and now it is too hot.  Maybe tomorrow.  I have been trying to be out the door by 6:30 and home by 8:00 to beat the heat.  Usually, 75 already then.  I thought I would do a post to my blog, but not a planner, and not sure what you might be interested in.

Here is a page I did over the weekend:

I think I have mentioned before that I like to take photos of dogs I see on the trail.  This was also for a Becky Fleck sketch on ACOT, A Cherry on Top.

I spilled my full cup of tea, so don't have that in here now.  What a mess that was!  I spilled it on my current journal:

Below is the result:  On left you are seeing bleed through of digital I printed on other side of my chart:

Below is front of other and is the digital that bled through.

I don't know about you, but I kind of like the result! LOL Maybe I have created a new technique!

Spilled tea probably doesn't qualify for my ticket to the tea party (TSFT) at Altered Book Lover hosted by Bleubeard and Elizabeth.

So, here is a photo of one of times we went out to eat recently:  I think it was at Cracker Barrel.  We always choose the fried apples as one of our sides and count it as dessert.  Mine came with two pieces of Grilled chicken tenderloins, so brought one home and next night we split it and made a meal out of it for two.  And there is our water with lemon. 

Happy T Day everyone, and Happy July!

Thanks for stopping by.  I really will try to post more often.  I can't wait to stop by and see what you all have been up to.  Me, I am just staying in because it is 96 degrees F and feels like 104!  I have a fan blowing on me and it feels pretty good.  Bye for now.

Results from NSD

 The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped:  therefore, my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.    Psalms 28:7

In the last post I was getting ready to participate in National Scrapbooking Day, which lasts all of May here. :)  I did get 14 layouts done and I think as many cards.   Some of the cards have already been mailed , so they didn’t get in the photo.  But May isn't over, so fully intend to get more done.  Below, is a photo I took on our stairs of everything so far.  I scrapped layouts of photos taken in 2021, 22, 23 and 2024.  I don't scrap in order,  but should.  It took me a half hour to get all these layouts into the proper albums!

I hope the ones who celebrate had a nice Mother's Day, Sunday.  I had a lovely, relaxing day.  Below are photos of my gift from our church Sunday for Mother's Day.  They gifted all the ladies these lovely travel mugs.  Good thing because I left my other old scratched up one at the Junk Journaling retreat last month.  I will just have to remember not to take it to Bible study, because all of our cups are the same! LOL

It even came in a pretty box.  This is also my ticket to the tea party over at Altered Book Lover where Bleubeard & Elizabeth host the Tea Stands For Tuesday event each Tuesday.

Thanks for stopping by to see what I have been doing.  I hope to see what some of you have been doing.  See you next time.

Tea & Scrapping

   ⁶ Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7

It is time to post for T Stands for Tuesday, our party held over at Altered Book Lover with Bleubeard & Elizabeth.  First I will show you my submission for **Art Journal* Journey* for Chris's On All Fours Challenge.  I meet dogs on my walk and decided to do a layout about the one I met Friday. 

I am still having fun playing Calvinball.  I received 43 points for this layout, Using items like Washi, a stamp, heart, punch, camera, tag, bird, flower, flowered paper, sticker, aqua, brads, arrow, multiple photos, word phrases, button, twine, bow, label, date, handwritten journaling, birdhouse, bee, yellow, tree, stitching, stripes, dog, and more.  There aren't any prizes for this challenge; it just gets you out of your box and inspires you to use your stash!

Here is the information!  And Chris, the photo is an avocado, not a pear.

Now my ticket to the party! We went out to eat Friday, and oh, my goodness!  I think it had been years since we went to Red Robin.  SOOOO good!  We didn't need to eat for over a day!  Luckily, I noticed the smaller hamburgers on the menu.  I didn't know they bring you fries, like they bring chips and salsa at Mexican Restaurants, then you get another side with you burger.  We got salads, and they were huge!  The fries were hot, and the sauce was wonderful, and that is our second batch of fries, because it is endless fries.  What you see on my plate is what I had left and I was already full.  But being the glutton I am, I ate everything except the rest of the fries.  If you ever go, go hungry!  LOL

I received a gift from one of our bloggers this week.  I will show it next week.

Thanks for stopping by, and for your comments, letting me know you came.  I will see you next time!