Craft Room Link Up

Craftin Desert Diva is hosting a Craft Room Link Up. If you would like to link your craftspace jump on over to her blog and link up.

http://www.craftindesertdivas.com/2013/05/craft-it-up-link-it-up-party-6.html

Here's My Craft Room....

Thanks for visiting my Blog. Please feel free to leave a comment, I would love to hear what you have to say about my post. If you dont have the time to leave a comment please check one of the reaction boxes. I appreciate all feedback. Hope you can stop back soon. ((Hugs)) Lori

Heather Von St. James

Today I would like to share my blog with Heather, so she can tell her story.

For Lily: A Mother's Fight Against Cancer

Life can sometimes present challenges that seem impossible to bear. When I was 36 years old, my life was suddenly turned upside down. After my daughter’s birth, my husband and I were happy beyond measure. Unfortunately, this blissful period was brief.

About a month after Lily was born, I went back to my full-time job. I soon noticed that I had no energy. I was unusually tired, and I was losing up to seven pounds a week. I knew that motherhood could cause exhaustion, but I felt that something else was going on. Sadly, I was correct. I consulted my doctor and underwent a battery of tests.

Only three and a half months after I gave birth, I received the news that I had malignant pleural mesothelioma. It’s a cancer of the lining of the lung, and it’s caused by exposure to asbestos. I was unaware that I had been in contact with asbestos in my childhood. Without treatment, I had about 15 months to live.

I was devastated. All I could think about was how my death would affect my husband and baby daughter. My husband and I decided to do everything possible to beat the disease, no matter what it took.

The treatment protocol we decided on was the most extreme option. We traveled from our Minnesota home to Boston. On February 2, 2006, I had an extrapleural pneumonectomy; this procedure removes the cancerous lung plus certain parts of the chest and heart linings and half of the diaphragm. I was in the hospital for 18 days. Two months later, I underwent chemotherapy followed by radiation.

While I was in treatment, Lily stayed at my parents’ house in South Dakota. I can never give enough thanks to the friends and family who helped my parents and Lily during this horrible period of our lives; their role in helping us survive the ordeal was enormous.

I missed a lot of Lily’s important milestones. While under my parents’ care, she started rolling around and eating solid food. It was difficult to be apart, but I knew she was in good hands. Like any mother in the same position, my priority was fighting my cancer so I could be there to see her grow up.  

Although cancer is a nightmare, it can actually bring some good. I gained strength to fight from knowing that my daughter and husband needed me. Life is fragile, and our family appreciates it more now. I would advise anyone dealing with a cancer diagnosis or any other difficult challenge to look for the good in every bad situation.

Foe more information go to.....http://www.mesothelioma.com/blog/authors/heather/

Thanks for visiting my Blog. Please feel free to leave a comment, I would love to hear what you have to say about my post. If you dont have the time to leave a comment please check one of the reaction boxes. I appreciate all feedback. Hope you can stop back soon. ((Hugs)) Lori

JAM with Lori, Pat & Joyce

Good Morning,

Today I wanted to share a JAM that Joyce, Pat and Myself worked on. Here's what we did.

Joyce - Embossed background design on white card stock

Pat - Distress look, dazzling diamonds, glimmer mist, Graphic 45 French Country papers, Prima wooden leaf

Lori - Butterfly stamp, embossing powder, glitter pens, glitter glue, string

We made 3 of the same and we each got to keep one.

Thanks for visiting my Blog. Please feel free to leave a comment, I would love to hear what you have to say about my post. If you dont have the time to leave a comment please check one of the reaction boxes. I appreciate all feedback. Hope you can stop back soon. ((Hugs)) Lori

ATC Swaps

Happy Thursday,

Tonight I wanted to share two ATCs that I made for swaps.

The first one is for the "Paisley" swap.
Materials used:
* Black card stock
* Heat activated embossing powder
* Gel pens
* Pearl pens

The second one is for the "Initial" swap.
Materials used:
* Black card stock
* Patterned paper
* Tag with the letter L printed on it
* Black lace
* Sheer ribbon
* Velvet flower
* Puffed flower
* Ribbon flowers
* Dew drops
* Jewel drop
* Shimmer butterfly
* Yellow button
* Fancy pins
* Glitter glue
* Glossy accents (still wet in the photo)
* Gel pens

Thanks for visiting my Blog. Please feel free to leave a comment, I would love to hear what you have to say about my post. If you dont have the time to leave a comment please check one of the reaction boxes. I appreciate all feedback. Hope you can stop back soon. ((Hugs)) Lori

Texture Medium

Happy Sunday,

Today I wanted to play around with some texture medium and stencils. So I made a journal page. I wanted to color the medium using Dylusions Ink Sprays. It watered the medium a bit and made it a bit runny but it was still thick enough to spread over the stencil and hold the shape. I glued the words to the paper and then went over them with glossy accents. I love the look and texture of the words once it dried. I think I will be using that technique a lot more often. I outlined the with some water color pencils dipped in water for accent.

Thanks for visiting my Blog. Please feel free to leave a comment, I would love to hear what you have to say about my post. If you dont have the time to leave a comment please check one of the reaction boxes. I appreciate all feedback. Hope you can stop back soon. ((Hugs)) Lori

Nemo / Charlotte

Good Morning,

The blizzard has passed. Nationally they are called it storm Nemo and in CT they called it Charlotte. Either way we got over 2 feet of snow. It started snowing on Friday Feb 8th at about 8:30am and stopped about 11:30am on Saturday. We are still snowed in. The street plows have not made it to our street yet. New Britain doesn't do a very good job with the plowing on days when there are small amount of snow so I can just imagine how long it's going to take and what kind of job they are going to do when they finally come this way.

Wonder how long it's going to take for all this to melt?

Thanks for visiting my Blog. Please feel free to leave a comment, I would love to hear what you have to say about my post. If you dont have the time to leave a comment please check one of the reaction boxes. I appreciate all feedback. Hope you can stop back soon. ((Hugs)) Lori

Thought I'd Share

Good Morning,

Today I thought I would share a website that I found out about from one of my Swap Buddies, Susanne over at The Art Colony. She and her husband work at an organization called Se'Shen Youth Development Society.

http://www.seshendevelopmentsociety.com/

Se’Shen Youth Development Society is a multidenominational Christian organization created to provide help, healing and hope for Aboriginal and other at risk youth in the Cowichan Valley, by providing mentorship, training, employment opportunities while respecting and upholding First Nations culture.

The below pictures were taken at the SeShen Youth Development building.

It would be great if you could hop on over to their website, have a look around and show some support..
http://www.seshendevelopmentsociety.com/



Thanks for visiting my Blog. Please feel free to leave a comment, I would love to hear what you have to say about my post. If you dont have the time to leave a comment please check one of the reaction boxes. I appreciate all feedback. Hope you can stop back soon. ((Hugs)) Lori

Bookmarks

Good Morning, Everyone,

Today I would like to share two bookmarks I made for a swap at "The Art Colony" hosted by Laura.  For these bookmarks I used water soluble crayons, mod podge, glitter glue, perfect pearls, stazon ink, rubber clear stamps, fibers, grommets, and glossy accents.

Thanks for visiting my Blog. Please feel free to leave a comment, I would love to hear what you have to say about my post. If you dont have the time to leave a comment please check one of the reaction boxes. I appreciate all feedback. Hope you can stop back soon. ((Hugs)) Lori

Pay It Forward

Hey Guys,

Tonight I finished my ATCs for my Pay It Forward. I had five friends sign up to receive an item handmade by me. All they had to do was to agree to make a handmade item for five of their friends and so on. To make my ATCs I used Gesso, Stamps, StazOn Ink, Liquid Pearls, Glitter Glue, Smooch, Dylusions Ink, Acrylic Paints, Paint Markers and Water Color Crayons. I taped 6 of the ATC cards together to make one piece of artwork. The message says...No Act Of Kindness Is Ever Wasted!!! After everything dried I pulled the tape off the back and had six ATCs sharing a piece of the same message. I titled each piece on the back Pass it Forward numbered each one and signed my name. I will be putting them in the mail in the next few days.

Thanks for visiting my Blog. Please feel free to leave a comment, I would love to hear what you have to say about my post. If you dont have the time to leave a comment please check one of the reaction boxes. I appreciate all feedback. Hope you can stop back soon. ((Hugs)) Lori

Pomeranian Sticker

Happy Monday!

Today I would like to share a project I made using my dog "Cody" as my inspiration. I used the Cricut Cartridge "Pet Shop" to create the Pomeranian. I used the 5" Xyron and ran the cutout on the good side so the sticky would be on top. I then used white and brown flock to fuzzy the cutout. Then just used a black marker to color the eyes and nose.

I think it looks just like my little guy....

Here's Cody

Here's my Pomeranian sticker

I plan on entering this sticker in the Pet Challenge at Love 2 Create. http://www.love2createitall.com/2013/01/pets.html

The picture of Cody and the sticker will be going in my brag book with some journaling for the month of January. 

Thanks for visiting my Blog. Please feel free to leave a comment, I would love to hear what you have to say about my post. If you dont have the time to leave a comment please check one of the reaction boxes. I appreciate all feedback. Hope you can stop back soon. ((Hugs)) Lori

2013 Brag Book

Good Morning,

Today I would like to share with you my 2013 Brag Book. I plan to use this book to put something that happens within each month of the year that stands out. Could be journaling, pictures, mixed media etc. This is an envelope mini and each envelope has a mat to hold two months. For the life of me I can't remember the paper pack that I used to make this album. (Note to self: add the strip from the paper that shows the name of the paper somewhere on your project). The first project I added on the inside of the front cover using different mediums that says "Live Life For U".  I love the way this came out. The papers are so colorful and there is a 1/4 inch between each page so I can really pack it full. Let me know what you think....

I'm also going to enter this in the Wednesday Challenge "Anything Goes" over at Tsunami Rose Designs http://tsunamirosedesigns.blogspot.com/

Thanks for visiting my Blog. Please feel free to leave a comment, I would love to hear what you have to say about my post. If you dont have the time to leave a comment please check one of the reaction boxes. I appreciate all feedback. Hope you can stop back soon. ((Hugs)) Lori

Etegami Style ATCs'

Good Morning,

Today I want to share the ATCs I made for a swap at "The Art Colony". I signed up for this swap because I have never heard of Etegami painting before and thought I would like to take a shot at it. Etegami is a Japanese folk art consisting of simple hand-painted drawings accompanied by a few words and a signature/symbol stamp in a red/orange color. When painting in the Etegami style you hold the paint brush at the top of the brush with your thumb and index finger. The clumsier the  better. Etegami painting is a lot harder than I thought it would be. I had very little control of the brush  technique when holding the brush the proper way for Etegami painting, my fingers kept wanting to hold the brush the way I would normally so half of my concentration was holding the brush correctly. I used Daler-Rowney FW Acrylic Water Resistant Artist Ink and Crayola Water Paints. That's what I had on hand, not the traditional materials used with this type of painting but it worked. I made my signature stamp with a piece of linoleum left over from our camper floor. It worked pretty good. (I have a piece about 6ft x 2ft so I may be using it to make some more of my own stamps) So here's what I came up with.......

I was not very happy with the outcome when I had finished the paintings, but once they dried and I added the simple words and the signature symbol they grew on me. I may just have to give it another try. 

Thanks for visiting my Blog. Please feel free to leave a comment, I would love to hear what you have to say about my post. If you don't have the time to leave a comment please check one of the reaction boxes. I appreciate all feedback. Hope you can stop back soon. ((Hugs)) Lori

My 1st ATC

Good Morning,

Hope everyone enjoyed their holiday. The best part is for me is spending time with family.

This morning I wanted to share my first ATC card that I have up for trade at atcforall.com. I used

Caran d'Ache Neocolor II Water Soluable Crayons to create this landscape. I had a lot of fun blending the colors. I think I'm going to start using these wather color crayons more often. I will be making tons of these ATCs. They are so cute and you get a finished project in a very short time.

Let me know what you think....

Thanks for visiting my Blog. Please feel free to leave a comment, I would love to hear what you have to say about my post. If you dont have the time to leave a comment please check one of the reaction boxes. I appreciate all feedback. Hope you can stop back soon. ((Hugs)) Lori

We Can Make This Happen! Please Read To The End.

Hi everyone,

This morning while I was checking my Facebook account I came across the below post. It's so heartbreaking to see a sick child suffer. If we can make this little boys dream come true, wouldn't you like to help. 

Everyone, let's make a little boy's dream come true. His name is Dalton Dingus, age 9. He has stage 4 Cystic Fibrosis & has very little time left to live. His only wish before he dies is to get in the World Record book for receiving the most Christmas cards. Dalton's address is HC 62 Box 1249 Salyersville KY 41465
Send this little boy a Christmas Card!!please reshare this on your facebook and flood the internet with this so everyone can see and participate.



I googled Guiness Record for Christmas Cards and came accross this post listing information about Daltons Dream....

http://wtvr.com/2012/12/11/dalton-guiness-record/

This is just part of the above post....

News station WKYT reports that the current record is 35,000 and Dalton currently has 23,000 cards.Recently the Morehead State University softball team spent Friday afternoon collecting Christmas cards. No one has asked for money to be sent, just a Christmas card.

If each person who reads this passes it on to a few of their friends and those friends do the same we can make this happen for Dalton. What do you say. Will you help this little boy make his dream come true.

I would like to share the card I made for him.

This is the front of the card.

 This is the inside of the card.

Simple and sweet and one more card closer to his goal.

Thanks for visiting my Blog. Please feel free to leave a comment, I would love to hear what you have to say about my post. If you dont have the time to leave a comment please check one of the reaction boxes. I appreciate all feedback. Hope you can stop back soon. ((Hugs)) Lori

Another Challenge

Good Morning,

Today I will be working on a project to enter in the challenge over at "The Craft Garden" http://thecraftgarden.blogspot.com/

The challenge is to take inspiration from this picture and create a project.
 

 I decided to make a  card and try to replicate the flower by quilling. I was going to use the flower all by itself in the center of the card It did not come out as I intended it to, so I just added other elements to collage the  the card. I used the green, white and yellow from the picture. Here's how my card came out.

What do you think? Can you see the inspiration?

Thanks for visiting my Blog. Please feel free to leave a comment, I would love to hear what you have to say about my post. If you dont have the time to leave a comment please check one of the reaction boxes. I appreciate all feedback. Hope you can stop back soon. ((Hugs)) Lori