Sorrow

Have I mentioned lately just how much I think cancer sucks? Well, just in case I haven't said it enough, it really, seriously bites. This past Thursday, cancer claimed another one of my friends and I am horribly sad for his wife, who is a dear friend, and their son, who are left behind.

I made this card last night as my Creative Inspirations Paint DT assignment, using the colours for the Play Date Cafe's Challenge #96 (cream, mint & coral). It was not an easy card for me to make. Ashley and Lee helped me, via Facebook and Skype, because I just could not get it together. The card hurt to make. I don't want him to be gone. My heart breaks for this family.I'm also pissed off, because he was too young (52) and he was a truly good guy. He fought like hell, and it isn't fair and I hate it and I wish I could be in California on Saturday to attend the memorial service. I hope my friend and her son know that I will be there in spirit.

I'm Back: CI Paints Inchies

Hey everyone. I know I haven't been around much lately. Things have just been really hard the past few months, starting with the huge family emergency in April. I can't really talk about that publicly yet. In part because it is still being investigated by NCIS (yes, really. Those guys.) Secondly, it involves the privacy of one of my daughters. You may read into that what you will.

Secondly, the spousal unit was forced to retire. He is still not working. He was "technically hired", also in April. In fact, the same week as everything else. But any of you who have ever worked with the government and security will know that those wheels grind very, very slowly. VERY. SLOWLY.

He has applied for temporary jobs and I have been looking for a job myself. Neither of us has had any luck. Neither has either of our sons (19 & 21.) Our 2 older daughters have been working (for tips only) as baggers at the commissary - that's how they can get away with "hiring" a 14yo. But I'm truly glad of it. The two of them have been paying for our groceries for the past 6 weeks. This is the worst things have ever been for us and I have felt helpless.

As a result, I've not been creating and I have not been online. How could I be, when this is all I can think about? I don't want to be the world's biggest downer. I don't want everyone to take pity on us. We will get through this. We've gotten some help from some of the most amazing friends. We have a roof over our heads and we have food. Except for our rent, all the bills are paid.

Before anyone asks, yes, as a retiree, he has a pension. It covers the medical/dental insurance fees and most of our regular bills - utilities, the few remaining credit cards we have, doctor copays...even without touching the rest of the bills, just insurance, it would be nearly $470 short of our rent. So we're paying everything else and our landlord is, so far, being as understanding as possible. But it's stressful.

And today, well yesterday, as it is now past midnight, was the anniversary of my friend Alice's passing. I miss her.

Now that I've gone and depressed everyone, how about I just copy over what I wrote for my Creative Inspirations Paints DT post?

Have you ever needed something quick and easy to add to a small gift or to jump start your mojo? Well, I needed a quick pick-me-up for myself, so I made some little inchie magnets for my fridge. I thought it might be fun to use parts of some larger stamps (from Unity's June 2009 KOTM: Perfect in Every Way) instead of using my dedicated inchie stamps, so I only inked up parts of them at a time before stamping. The larger the stamp, the less of it you need to ink. For the cherry, I did ink nearly the entire thing.

Once I had compositions I liked, I painted them with Chocolate, Garnet, Evergreen, and Green Olive Creative Inspirations Paints.
It's pretty easy to see the sparkle and shimmer, although I do wish the photo had been clearer. It was either get the details of the cherry, or get the glimmer of the paint. I went with the sparkle. These little guys make me smile when I see them holding up coupons or the latest grocery receipt.

Thanks for sticking with me. Hope you all have a wonderful week.

GIU Makeup Day 4ish

Hey guys. That fibro flare has me good and hard still, but I will finish out last week to give everyone their full opportunities to comment and win.

Today was my first day on the Creative Inspirations Paint blog, and since typing hurts, I'm going to cut/paste most of what I wrote over there.

This past week has been birthday central around my house, so I made a birthday card using a few Unity stamps. I thought I'd try painting directly onto my stamps and stamping with them, since I'd never used my paints that way before. As you can see, it worked out really well! It's definitely a different look, but I think it came out really cool, plus the shimmer is fantastic!

Deets:
Stamps: Unity - retired vine
Unity/Bella Blvd: Bella Trees & Sweet Celebration Birthday
Paint: Creative Inspirations Paints - Emerald, Evergreen
Cardstock: Memory Box, Neenah Classic Crest
Etc: embossing folder Swiss Dots

I especially love the look of the vine stamp down the left side of the card. I'm definitely going to be using this technique more often! I did learn that it works a lot better with a stamp that has more solid areas, rather than just outlines, such as the sentiment, but that did still work. I can hardly wait to try it with multiple colours!

Paper Maniac has all of their Unity stamps on sale for 40% off throughout the month of April. That's a fantastic steal! Great time to pick up one of the new Websters Pages kits or some Melody Ross....

H{ippity} Hoppity

Good morning Peeps!! The desktop is much happier today. Firefox is successfully reinstalled and working properly. Hurray!!!

It's Monday, which means it's time for your weekly h{ippity} hop. The DT is first, followed by all of us {ippity} geeks, er, fans. For a full list of participants, check out the {ippity} blog.

Today I have a card that uses stamps from two sets. The butterfly and the leaf are from Now & Always. The birthday sentiment is from Just Wanted to Say. The card uses Unscripted Sketches #71, a new-to-me sketch challenge.
Here's a close-up of the butterfly, which is stamped with Unity's Moulin Rouge hybrid ink and then painted with Creative Inspirations Paints in Tutu Pink and Tickled Pink. I really love these paints!! I hope you can see the shimmer in them.
Have a great day! I'll be back later this week with more to look at.

EtsyInspired Meets CPS

Hey everyone! Don't be too shocked, but here's my third post this week! With the Etsy Inspired Challenge's big 100 this week, I thought I'd try to make at least one card per day anyway, and today I have one that's kind of special. A week or so ago, Ashley asked if I might consider being the Featured Stamper over at the Creative Inspirations Paint blog at some point. Um, me? Featured?

After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I babbled my acceptance. Well some point became this week! That meant I needed a project to show off those yummy paints. And since I'm all about the EIC this week, I looked there for inspiration. I saw this Soar pendant and it brought to mind the balloons cute little Jolinne is holding. I used the sketch from CPS #179, some Memory Box Jubilee dp and some pretty pink ribbon that I got from Kimme. I painted Jolinne's shoes and her sash with the same pink as the darker balloons, but it is over Copics, which gives it a slightly different shade.

I tell you, I need some more of this paint!