http://m1stowers.blogspot.com/

This is the link to my new blogspot..............it will have more current information but is under construction and will take some time to get it up to speed.

after post thought

Looking at my blog............after I posted........I find that you will not find the atc unless you click on the archives for 2009.

2012

Happy New Year!!!

This is a very poor photo of the Christmas card I made for 2011.

I have a new printer and scanner.......and software to go with it and it isn't as easy to use as the old one was...

It will take me a while to get used to it.

Hence the picture is crooked and I have not figured out how to straighten it.

The card stock is SU Cherry Cobbler, Shimmer White and

JA light blue.

On the card itself I used Delicate Doilies with Versa Mark and sprinkled on glitter embossing powder from Powder Keg (Red Rose) to give a shimmering red on red look.

The ribbon is from JA and the image is from Dover Publications.

And I see that this must be one of my more fav images from Dover because I have used it before in an ATC (if you scroll down you will find it).

Well, I have been away from my blog so long I can't figure out how to add a picture. It may take some time to figure this out, since I am having trouble with Explorer right now.

I will try to come back in chrome and see if the page looks any different. I don't see an icon or bar to click on.

I have lots to show you and share with you. Hopefully I will get this figured out

Well I couldn't figure it out in Explorer............so I am on Chrome and my compose button has shown up and even

the icons with a publish button.

I'm all set for right now, but still have to

get the technicians to figure out what is going on in explorer........Hmmm??!!

I'm going to start with the cards I made for Christmas and we will go from there.

The first one is using bright red, black and white cs(I used shimery white from SU). The ds paper is light gray and has a muted design in white. I spritzed the paper with glimmer mist and then embossed with the larger folder from Sizzix summer waves collection. The embellishments are silver sticky buttons that come in 3 sizes on the same sheet (found at JA or M or just about anywhere) I used the large size for the corners and the med for the sides and the the small for the top and bottom.

The ornament is from the SU ornament punch with silver cording looped and tied through the hole punched in the center top. I used black glitter paper for the ornament. The greeting is a sticker, but as you will see on the next picture I did stamp some also. For these I used black half round jewels, self sticking and also came in 3 sizes. The stamp is from SU Seasons Greeting Collection.

ATC cards

This is a dimensional card---one of my dining room plaques was the inspiration for this. It was a swap with a group of friends and I will post theirs as well.
I used mod podge colored with brown acrylic paint to create the background. I also used clear mod podge on the flowers after I scrunched them to give them a little firmness. Then I stamped the vase image on the card and stamped the image a second time on separate piece of card stock. These I cut out and used dimensional pop dots to lift them off the image. The seed beads are on a jump ring and are slipped over the neck of the vase and secured with a pop dot. I used twisted rafia for the corners and mini brads for the flowers.

Ah hem................yes, I'm still alive.

I know everyone thought I dropped off the face of the earth..............but I am still here.
Time has flown by.........................even I can't believe how long it has been since my last post.
Let's blame work...................this has been a major stressor in my live this year. It has eased up lately, but I don't expect it to stay that way for long. Too many things are happening and I expect it to overload the system (more work than workers) eventually and come to rest in our office for us to complete. I know that is cryptic----but if I start listing it all---I would be here forever.
Instead let's focus on some fun things. I have been able to do some cards and atc's and even a layout here and there and I will post them.
I am looking forward to fall---the summer was too hot for me----my allergies have been worse this year than in the last 15 years and fall is one of my favorite seasons.

January Thaw

We all wait for the January thaw and it has arrived.
I think that we have less to thaw this year than most years. However, that does depend on exactly where you live.
For my part of Michigan--it will be nice for the snow to melt into the ground and for the frigid temps to rise above freezing.
In a month it will be Valentines Day and I do have a card swap due Monday that I am actually ready for!! We chose Valentine's Day as the theme.
The card that I made--I scraplifted the idea from The Inking spot of Crains Creations and worked with what I had on hand. I made my scallop circle larger than I think it should have been, but went with it anyway.
The lighter pink cardstock is from Paper Company and is Rosebud Metallic, the darker pink is from JA's.
I use the Cricut to cut the scallop circle and the circle.
The heart was cut with the sizzix embosslit Double Heart.
The sample use small brads where I used Liquid Pearls. I don't know where I bought the ribbon from or the stamp. I smudged the white circle with Close to Cocoa (SU) and stamped the words with Chocolate Kiss, also SU.
Once I assembled the circles, the heart and let the liquid pearls dry and stamped the sentiment I sprayed it with Garnet Ritzy Ditzy Glitz from Paper Gardens.
The patterned paper is one of my favorite patterns from Basic Grey--Bittersweet Vanilla/Fudge.
If you want to see the original it is posted on Crain Creations Blog. If your interested email me at m1stowers@yahoo.com and I will find the link for you.

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year!! It is 2010!!! This is the first day of the new year.
I spent time with dh this morning and then reconnected with a long time friend and did some shopping.
I like the way this is going!!!
Great start to a new year.
I have been busy in the stamp cave also, but not today........... YET!

The card above on the left was cut out using the cricut Wild Card cartridge, stamped with a Stampin Up stamp from 2007 ( I don't know what set it went to) and then circles of different sizes with the top one cut from the Stampin Up Scallop Circle punch. The leaf stamp is a favorite of mine, but it is not from stampin up. Very simple design, but that isn't what I really want to show you.
When I was scanning it and cropping it to put in my computer file I accidentally hit the negative choice and the card on the top is what I saw. I kinda liked it so I saved it to use on my digital scrapbook pages.
Sometimes an oops becomes an oh yeah!

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays

Just wanted to wish everyone a very blessed and happy holiday. I hope you are able to enjoy time with the ones who mean the most to you, share memories and make new memories together.
I'm not one to make new resolutions each year since most of the ones I did make are a ongoing kind of thing---like losing weight and keeping it off---being more patient with everyone---and being continuously grateful for the many blessings that I have already. Each new day I subconsciously or consciously keep those items on my mind.
Have most wonderful season--what ever it is that you are celebrating.


(Angel compliments of ScrapGirls)

Well, we finally made it past fall and into winter. I have most of my Christmas shopping done and the tree is up. I still have to wrap gifts and finish decorating the house.
It seems really odd not to have the bubble lights on the tree this year. We bought a new tree and it is prelit and it does look nice--but I miss my bubble lights.
It is just like I told my son the other day--there are two constants in our lives. We all die eventually and the other is that things are always changing.
This tree was much easier to put up---and Bob and I are not getting younger--and realistically we should start thinking about making things easier for us--well me, Bob is not much for Christmas decorating. I guess if it's easier on me--I'm less grumpy--so it is easier on him.
But anyway, my carousel and bubble lights are not on the tree.
...............and I miss them.
OK enough of that--
We went to a party where my dad lives--most of the residents families were there---and there was a lot of excitement. Santa came and passed out presents to the residents--there was also a karioke singer there and he was singing Christmas songs (what else would he sing??LOL). Dad discovered all goodies on the counter and wanted to fill his pockets for later (this is a story for another time)--so he would have snacks. He just wanted the cookies and the candy--nothing healthy and he had already had 2-3 servings of those yummy snacks.
We decided that we should separate my dad and the temptations--we had no control over the temptations so we took my dad out for a ride to get something to eat. He was happy with that.
By the time we came back most of the families had gone and the caregivers had the "temptations" put away and they were being treated to McDonalds--which they all thoroughly enjoyed.
I think when we left dad was planning to sit down with them--cause he knows that dessert follows dinner--he might be just in time for that!
Funny what he remembers!
Incase I don't get back here before Christmas, I hope all of you have a wonderful holiday .
Merry Christmas!

The Second Card

This one is so pretty and soft--I love the colors. The stamped image is one of my favorites.

Happy FALL

Finally, it is slowing down for me at work........getting a little breathing space and catching up at work. However, my boss told me it won't be long that we will be getting new business and we will be working our bums off again.
I have lots of pictures to share with you but, the Meijers where I live has had their 1 hour photo "broken" every time I go to get my pictures developed. I am up to 4 rolls that have to be developed. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr!
Yes, I am still doing picture taking the old fashioned way. AND..........yes I am going somewhere else (probably Walgreens) to get my pictures developed. Hopefully today.
Bob has the house finished next door and we are hoping to get it leased soon. It looks great.
I am working on my Christmas cards and Secret Gobbler gift.
Here are the cards that I received from my Secret Gobbler Sister.
The first one is a Cuttlebug embosser
and if anyone knows where I can go to get this one, please let me know--I have looked around my area at Michaels and JoAnns and have not seen it.

Keeping my hands busy

No doubt, I have been a busy girl this summer--like most of you.
I had a chance to go to Crystal Mountain Resort with dh for a couple of days and I enjoyed it very much. It was nice to relax after the business of summer.
With work taking an increasing amount of time and dh and I spending more time apart--we wanted to spend more time together--
If I sat on the couch and watched TV with him in the evening after work, I would fall asleep.
If we busied ourselves on the computers, he would become very drowsy and end up going to bed early.
So, I thought if I kept my hands busy, while watching T.V. maybe I could stay awake. So I got out my cross stitching and started working on it. I had some small ones to work on and am now into the medium ones.
I will attach the ones I have scanned so you can see them.

One thing I haven't shared is that I have always wanted to be an artist. Now, in reality, my skills in that area are limited--but I did manage to hand draw these little flowers and color them in with a mixture of copic and SU markers. These are Artist Trading Cards.




During the time I was off my computer crashed, well my internet was what was corrupted and I managed to keep almost everything but my digital software program. I am currently not able to do anything digitally. Here is some ATC's that I did while the program was un corrupted.

I'm Back--did u miss me?

Hello,
It has been too long a time since I have updated this blog. I know-----I'm sorry.
Instead of listing all my excuses I will just say that my life has been busy and my time on the internet very limited.
However, I hope to be able to keep a fairly current post going.
I have been working on some cross stitch and my scrapbooking pages, so I don't have a bunch of cards to show you.
I will see what was the last posted project and be back to share something new with you.

Scrap your Blog Site!!!!!!

This is so cool!! I apologize if you already know how to do this, but I just found out!! So it is really cool to me. I just scrapped my blog!!!!!
Found the instructions in Creating Keepsakes July '09 issue. It is really simple.
1-Create a new blank image in Photoshop Elements or Microsoft Word.
2-Launch your web browser and navigate to the web page you would like to capture. (your blog)
3-Press the ALT + PRINT SCREEN buttons on your keyboard, and then paste your screenshot into your new document.
4-Print the screenshot onto cardstock or photo paper, and use it just like you would a photo.
(Or publish it from Photoshop Elements)

Easee--peasee!!

Memorial Weekend
Usually on this weekend dh and I plant our flowers for the summer season however, this year we decided to have a family get
together. We have so many events to celebrate in
May. Let's see there is Mother's Day, our 18 th
Anniversay, my oldest ds and dil's 15 th anniversary, grandson Donovan's 5 th birthday, grandaughter Tanisha's 14 th birthday, brother Franks !!th birthday, and Memorial Day. My biggest dielema was what to put on the cake?
I have tried to fit it all on one cake (and thank goodness for Meijers, they have such talented cake writers) but this year I made the cakes and I knew I couldn't write on a cake legebley. I had some candles that spelled Happy Birthday--but we were celebrating so much more---I ended up with Happy Day! It was indeed a happy day that we could all get together again. The grandchildren are getting older and a couple of more years they will be living there own lives and it will get harder and harder to have everyone together. We did have a good day, the weather was great, couldn't ask for a better cookout.
Our cookout did put our flower planting a week behind schedule, but it is done now, well almost.
DH and I went and bought the spring plants yesterday morning and spent the afternoon planting them--I did run out of potting soil--so will be at Meijers sometime today to pick that up and finish the planting. I love the flowers all the colors. I like the fragrance too, but most of the flowers kick up my allergies--which I can't get away from in the summer--so I want to enjoy their beauty in my yard.
Here are pictures of my purple Irises (given to me by my friend RuthAnn) and our Yucca plant(from son Chris) and a basket of impatiens and others that I plant every year in a pot that was a graduation (associates degree, some years ago) gift from one of my customers when I worked at Penney's.

Every year I take pictures of my flowers---and I scrapbook them every year. This year will be no exception--because I have new flowers to capture.

Happy Spring (before it becomes summer)

I did make it back faster this time, although not as fast as I was anticipating!
Work should slow down just a little bit--at least so we can catch our breath!
I hope everyone gets some time off this weekend for Memorial Day.
We are having a family cook out on Sunday, so I will be getting the house ready and shopping when I have time and energy (lol), dh will help some, but his focus is on the yard--which has been mostly neglected this spring. We will be late with our flower planting ( we usually plant on Memorial Day weekend) because of the weather and the cookout but I think it is more important to have the get together..
We haven't had the family all together since Christmas---we have been visiting at the kids homes for birthdays, Easter, etc.
I will post the pic of my latest trapeze card and will try to get some other pics up here soon.
SOON! I promise!

Mel Stampz

http://melstampz.blogspot.com/
Here is a link to her blogspot--lots of crafty ideas and projects.

Apology, My Week and My Dad

I have been a very bad blogger!! So sorry!

Work has become center stage lately and has taken almost all of my energy.

Also I was getting ready for the March SCS Michigan Mingle, had out of town company, birthdays and holidays---but mostly the 10 to 12 hour days just exhaust me.

Granted those long days are not all work--TUESDAYS it is--driving to Livonia and back.

We are all (at work) trying to keep two locations going--stressful for everyone.

WEDNESDAYS: after work--I beeline it to my dad's and take him out for a ride-we go to Tim Hortons and get him some cookies and diet coke. He likes to sit there and watch people and cars go by and of course we spend time together. Then we go for a ride downtown (Lapeer) because it reminds him of the many downtowns in his past and I think it does bring back memories for him. I don't know how long those memories last or how vivid they are (he has alzheimers) and then we stop and get gas and depending on his energy we might go check out Big Lots. ( I just go to the scrapbooking section--to see if anything new came in.) Then back to Bolton Brook in Metamora. Usually it is about 7:30 pm by then and he is ready for bed, but with the longer summer days approaching he might wonder what he is going to do until he see's me again.

He used to live with us and sometimes his memory stops at that point and he wonders why he isn't coming home with me or why I'm not staying there with him.

It is hard on both of us, sometimes.

The picture above was taken by my cousin Bob who stopped by to visit on his way back to Minnesota after vacationing in the Carolinas. We went out to lunch and as you can see my dad was very animated that day.

THURSDAYS: This is my WW day and I don't get home until 7:30 later if I stop at the stores.

FRIDAYS: Is usually the bank and shopping--again a late night getting home.

MONDAYS: This is the only night I have free and it gets filled up with Misc. but necessary and sometimes fun things to do.

SATURDAY---Every other Sat I have a 9 am appointment--so I am up and going early that day, the alternating Sat I like to veg until noon and then take the day seriously ( whether it is scrapbooking, card making, spending time with dh, more shopping, cleaning, washing clothes---you know all those necessary things.

SUNDAY--- Is usually when we schedule family events and always include my dad. If there is no event going on--we take my dad out for dinner--we go to the Nugget in Oxford--because they serve broiled haddock---something he likes and doesn't get very often at Bolton Brook because they serve the group--and fish is not a group favorite!!

Well--I did ramble, didn't I?

I will have to get on sooner and share some pic's of Easter dinner, March Mingle, and my new Trapeze card I am working on now.

If you get a chance check out Mels Stampz--she has a great newsletter and blog. I will see if I can get a link posted for you all.