Happy Friday afternoon blog friends!
I hope you haven't missed me too much, lol. I know, I keep promising to have posts more often, but with the schedule I keep, it is not an easy thing to do. Working P/T for two churches and then coming home to my 91-year old mother is not easy! My day starts very early; I'm up at 5:00 in order to get to work by 6:30 (I start at 7:00 am). Why so early, because before I leave I have to make sure my mom's taken one pill (she needs this on an empty stomach before breakfast), that she's taken a shower and dressed. I then make her breakfast and have to insure her other meds are on the table to be taken with her meal. Why do I do all this? Well, my mother also suffers from some dementia, and when she first wakes, she's extremely confused and doesn't know what she should be doing. It is true what is said about the elderly: "
once a man, twice a child". When I follow this routine, it not only helps me, it helps her as well. If I don't do this, I will come home and find her still in bed, in her PJs, unkempt. With this schedule though, I come home to an alert mother, who is coherent and able to carry on a conversation without a mental hiccup.
Once I come home (I'm off work at 11:00 and home by 11:30 am) I prepare her lunch and go about taking care of things such as cooking dinner, cleaning or washing, and spending time in studying the Bible. I also sometimes (if time permits) take a nap. With the exception of Tuesday and Friday, I'm at my church in the evenings. On Monday, I lead a small group Bible Study. We're currently reading "When I Lay My Isaac Down," by Carol Kent. If you haven't read it, I recommend you purchase and read it. If ever you find yourself facing trials or going through life changing events in your life, this book will give you the tools you need to handle them. Anyway, back to what I was saying. On Wednesdays I have choir rehearsal, on Thursdays dance rehearsal (praise dancing), Saturday mornings praise and worship, then on Sundays my duties vary: On first Sunday, I teach Children's Church (8:00 am only); on third Sundays I sing and dance (both at the 8:00 and 11:00 am services) and on fourth Sunday, I sing again.
Phew! That's a lot, isn't it? Seriously, I don't mind. Everything I do at church brings me joy and fulfillment and in all of this I still find time to create! If I'm not making greeting cards, I'm putting together a flyer for some event or the other. These last two are my passion. I love being creative. I get a thrill from seeing the joy in other's faces when I create a card or make a flyer or invitation for their event. For all of these reasons it is so hard to get on this computer and write! But, I will try, my friends. Just bear with me as I get myself more organized to do so.
I don't want to leave you without showing off some of my creations. Though I haven't been blogging, I do create. Here are a few of my newest cards. I made collages as I've made so many in the past few months.
The images above are digi stamps by
Robert Jackson Fine Arts. I used Gimp to make changes to the images (paint, patterns) as well as Copics (in some cases). I also used Washi tape and paper piercing (the image in the lower bottom left and right).
These cards on the right are the birthday, get well bunch. I used
MTC to cut out the boot, but prior to cutting, I changed the pattern on the boot and the shoe in Gimp using their pre-installed leopard pattern. The Dr. Who card was for, you guessed it, a doctor friend, lol! As for the Fight like a Girl card, well October was Breast Cancer Awareness Month and I have a few friends who've been fighting this disease and was inspired to make this card for them.
This other set of cards below are again Robert Jackson digis. A few of them are exclusive to me (I have ideas about the type of image I want and I order them to my specifications). This is the case for the two male figure cards below. Once more I used Gimp to create the look I want for the digis, then I print and cut in
MTC. I made two copies of the images so I could use mounting stickers to give them a 3D look.
For the ladies, I used Copics to paint the bodies as well as the dress of the lady in blue. For the other lady, I used Washi tape wrapped around the paper pierced skirt and top. I then wrapped the same Washi around the background paper.
Here are the final four. For the moustache and bow tie card, I used my Cameo Silhouette to cut. The Sister Act card digi is from
Mo's. I used Copics to paint the image and Stickles to embellish.
This first card was inspired from a tutorial here. I had this digital image pre-printed and stored in a binder I have for work I want to do, but haven't got around to. I thought it would fit perfectly inside the frame of the card. I colored the flowers and vase using Copic markers and added Stickles to give the appearance of water. 
The second card was inspired by some coasters I purchased last December. These coasters have all types of quotes and I thought they would make nice gifts, however, because I went out of state for the holidays, I didn't get around to giving them to anyone. Here are some of them. Aren't they cute?
I took the coaster and attached it to the back of a frame I die cut with my Cuttlebug. I then attached that to a cardstock from my stash of patterned stocks and papers. Here is a front and side view of the card.
