Just an update

Good morning! It has been a month since I have posted and in one sense, time has flown, but medically and pain-wise, not so much!! I am doing well in my total knee recovery, and getting ready to celebrate my 6-week post-op next Tuesday, with being cut loose from physical therapy! My therapist has been the best therapist, and has rehabbed me three times: once for my first TKR, once for my frozen shoulder last Spring and now with this second TKR. I want to thank her, Karen Pirovolidis for all her continued encouragement and help as I struggled to make each moment count!

And, I also want to announce that I am resuming my duties as part of the Clear Dollar Stamps Design Team, beginning October 1st, which will generate November sneak peeks at the end of October. So, I hope that you will visit back here then, to see what I've come up with. In the meantime, I will be jumping back into the swing of stamping sometime soon, as I will just be making a few cards for my own personal use and I hope to have those to share with you within the next week or so. It has been a very long haul through this surgery and I want to thank everyone for all their kind thoughts and uplifted prayers. See you soon!

I'm Home From the Hospital

Good morning! Just an update on my total knee replacement surgery. I was discharged from the hospital last Friday, 8/14 and was so glad to come home to get some much-needed rest. Between the blood drawing, IV changing, medication dispensing, meals arriving, physical therapists coming to get me, etc...there was no sleep to be had more than a 2-hour stretch. But, the operation was successful, physical therapy in the hospital went very well and today, I had my first in-home physical therapy session. My physical therapist said that because I am doing so well so early on (my surgery being less than a week ago), that she will release me to out-patient physical therapy mid-week, next week. That means I can go to my favorite physical therapy place, Agape Therapy which is located within a health/fitness club. There, I will be able to use their exercise equipment as well as therapy pool to rehab the knee.

I'm spending alot of my days stalking other cardmaker's blogs, watching television, reading, napping, icing the knee, elevating the knee and doing my physical therapy exercises. I'm tired most of the time because of the pain meds, but I'm so glad that the worse is over.

I hope to get upstairs this weekend and see if I can sit for a spell at my craft table, at least to sort some buttons and ribbons that I've ordered from Paper Trey Ink...and who knows, maybe I'll start a card! How cool would that be! Thanks for staying in touch...

Time Off for Some Surgery

Hello! I wanted to share with my readers that I will be taking a "cardmaking hiatus" effective today and for a little while longer. For years, I have suffered from osteoarthritis in both knees, which has led to the need for total knee replacement surgery. I had my left knee replaced in September, 2007 and now my right knee will be replaced in a few days. I will be involved in intensive physical therapy 3 times a week, so that will leave very little energy to create cards. I have stepped down from my CDS Design Team duties for a few months, but plan to return as soon as I am able. I hope that this news does not disappoint my readers or turn them off from ever returning to visit my blog. Should you feel inclined to pray for my upcoming surgery, I would be most humbled, as I have a strong belief in the power of uplifted prayer.

Peeking into the Neighborhood

Good Morning! Today is Day #2 of Clear Dollar Stamps' Sneak Peek Week and today I'm sharing a really versatile stamp set called "Nice Neighborhood". This set includes 3 different style houses, trees, a moving truck and several themed sentiments. The set was illustrated by Laurie Wilson, our CDS Design Team Coordinator and if you like to color images...then you gotta get this set! For this particular sample, I wanted to keep it very clean and simple. Well, it didn't exactly turned out clean and simple, but for me, I think it's close! LOL I drew the colors from the beautiful Basic Grey Designer Paper Collection "Porcelain" and wanted the pretty floral background and stamped image to really compliment each other...so I colored the house quite simply to not distract from the background floral. I added a little Michael's self-adhesive silver bead for the door handle of the house! Isn't that cute? To keep the feminine flavor of the card, I used the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, Martha Stewart Eyelet Border Punch and some sweet Pebbles Gingham Ribbon...AND! My favorite KasierCraft Self-Adhesive "Bliss" Pearls. For some other ideas and card samples of "Nice Neighborhood", see my fellow CDS Design Team Members: Candy Fosta, Stacy Morgan, Katie Rentz, Sarah Taylor, Cassie Trask & Kim Teasdale. "Nice Neighborhood" releases August 1st and can be purchased at www.newcleardollarstamps.com.

Stamps: CDS "Nice Neighborhood"
Cardstock & Papers: Basic Grey "Porcelain" Designer Paper Collection, ColorMates Light Pretty in Pink & Medium Spring Green Cardstock, Paper Trey White Cardstock
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black Ink
Markers: Copic Sketch Markers - RV11 Pink, G21 Lime Green, BG000 Pale Aqua, C1 & C3 Cool Greys
Accessories: Cuttlebug, Nestabilities Regular and Scalloped Round Dies, "Swiss Dots" Embossing Folder, Marvy Mega Round Punch, Karen Foster Click-It Hole Punch Kit, Martha Stewart Eyelet Border Punch, Sewing Machine, Thread, Adhesive, Stampin' Up! Dimensionals, Paper Piercing Tool, Pebbles Gingham Ribbon, KaiserCraft Self-Adhesive "Rose" Pearls, Michael's Silver Self-Adhesive Bead
Techniques: Basic Stamping, Copic Coloring, Paper Piercing, Machine Stitching

Another sneak peek sample using CDS' "Nice Neighborhood" was created all around the two-sided designer paper that I was dying to use and waiting for "just the right moment!" Since I used soft, feminine colors on my first sneak peek sample of "Nice Neighborhood", I wanted to use some warm and toasty colors on this sample. I drew all the colors from the Graphic 45 "Times Noveau Collection" Designer Paper, to color the image, to sponge the sentiment, etc. The image, again was so much fun to color my Copic Sketch Markers and I added another little Michael's Self-Adhesive Gold Bead for the door handle of the house. In fact, if the house weren't a dark yellow...it might pass for "My Little Yellow Cottage" !! LOL To see the whole stamp sheet set of "Nice Neighborhood", visit Lori McCroskey's blog.

Stamps: CDs "Nice Neighborhood"Cardstock & Papers: Basic Grey "Boxer" Designer Paper Collection, Graphic 45 "Times Noveau Collection - Hot Tomato" Designer Paper, Paper Trey White Cardstock
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black & Summer Sky Inks, Stampin' Up! Mellow Moss Ink
Markers: Copic Sketch - B00 Frost Blue, E09 Burnt Sienna, E34 Orientale, YR21 Cream, YR24 Pale Sepia, E29 Burnt Umber, G94 Grayish Olive
Accessories: Cuttlebug, Nestabilities Curved Long Rectangle, Regular Circle & Inverted Circle Dies, Paper Piercing Tool, Karen Foster Click-It Hole Punch Kit, Adhesive, Stampin' Up! Dimensionals, Cloud Template, Tskukineko Sponge Dauber, Michael's Self-Adhesive Gold Beads, Making Memories "5th Avenue" Collection Ribbon, Spare Parts Button, Crochet Thread
Techniques: Basic Stamping, Copic Coloring, Sponging, Masking, Paper Piercing
CDS Challenge: Create a Stamped, Cut-Out Element as an Accent

Well, unfortunately, that's all I have to share with you this CDS Sneak Peek Week, BUT! There's more to see on my fellow Clear Dollar Stamps Design Team blogs -- you can find their links on my right sidebar. They will have more sneak peeks to share with you on Thursday, July 30 and Friday, July 31st -- and they are so worth seeing! AND! All these great new sets will be available for purchase August 1st at www.newcleardollarstamps.com

Good Morning! Do you know what today is????? Today is Day #1 for Clear Dollar Stamps Sneak Peek Week! I always get excited sharing my sneak peek samples with my readers during CDS Sneak Peek Week and hope that you all enjoy seeing them, as well. I have two super stamp sets to share with you today, and I'll start with "Hanging Out" illustrated by our Design Team Coordinator, Laurie Wilson. "Hanging Out" is a supercute stamp set that offers a clothesline, several items of clothing to hang on the clothesline, various sentiments and two adorable Magpies! How homespun is that???? For this sneak peek sample, I couldn't wait to ink up the articles of clothing and then paper piece them onto the clothesline. I wanted to used a Summery color scheme, and had this fun different-sized polka dot designer paper, and thought that I'd throw in a little teal to make it all pop. All 3 articles of clothing were stamped on either cardstock or designer paper, then cut out then adhered overtop the underlying stamped image. The clouds were sponged with my trusty handmade cloud template and the little dots around the Nestablities Labels Three were stamped with Clear Dollar Stamps' "Sassy Scallops" stamp set. That set is invaluable! For more great designs using "Hanging Out" see my fellow CDS Design Team Members: Candy Fosta, Cassie Trask, Angela Thomas, Kim Teasdale & Laurie Wilson.

Stamps: CDS "Hanging Out" & "Sassy Scallops"
Cardstock & Papers: Paper Trey "Bitty Dot Basics" Designer Paper Collection, DCWV "Assorted Splats" Designer Paper Collection, DCWV "Nana's Kids - Embossed Green Dots" Designer Paper, Paper Trey White Cardstock
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black & Tangelo Inks, Stampin' Up! Baja Breeze & Taken with Teal Inks
Markers: Copic Sketch - YG03 Yellow Green
Accessories: Cuttlebug, Nestabilities Regular Square & Labels Three Dies, EK Success Corner Punch, Sewing Machine, Thread, Cloud Template, Tsukineko Sponge Dauber, Adhesive, Stampin' Up! Dimensionals, Offray Felt Ric Rac, Robin's Nest "Water" & "Flame" Dew Drops.
Techniques: Basic Stamping, Sponging, Paper Piecing, Machine Stitching, Masking

Do you like Magpies? Blackbirds? I so love them as illustrations, but not so much in the yard! LOL For my second sneak peek sample of "Hanging Out", you know I just had to ink up those magpies! I mean, how cute is that? Two Magpies on a clothesline! I love the whole visual!! LOL The colors and layout for this card came from TWO (mind you!) CDS Design Team Challenges: 1. the Sketch/Layout and 2. Color Challenge - Mustard & Black. Well, I didn't have a lot of mustard coordinating papers lying around, but I did have this two-toned trellis plaid old scrapbook paper that just was screaming to be used! It is so old that I have no clue where it came from or who made it! (Sorry, sniff, sniff!). If you look closely at the right side of the card, you'll see the zig-zag stitch that ended in straight stitch to the button embellishment...that was my attempt of satisfying another "strip type area" for the Sketch/Layout that Laurie Wilson provided. I think it flies alright...LOL. "Hanging Out" will be released on August 1st and the entire stamp sheet set can be viewed at Lori McCroskey's Blog. To purchase, visit www.newcleardollarstamps.com

Stamps: CDS "Hanging Out"
Cardstock & Papers: Paper Trey "Bitty Dot Basics" Designer Paper Collection, Unknown Scrapbook Paper, Paper Trey White Cardstock
Ink: Memento Black and Summer Sky Inks
Markers: Copic Sketch - Y21 Buttercup Yellow, Y26 Mustard, 100 Black, C1 & C3 Cool Greys. Other Marker - Signo White Gel Pen
Accessories: Cuttlebug, Nestabilities Regular & Scalloped Oval Dies, Martha Stewart Eyelet Border Punch, Cloud Template, Karen Foster Click-It Hole Punch Kit, Sewing Machine, Thread, Adhesive, Stampin' Up! Dimensionals, Pebbles Ribbon, Doodlebug Button, Crochet Thread
Techniques: Basic Stamping, Sponging, Copic Coloring, Masking, Machine Stitching.
CDS Challenges: Color Challenge & Sketch Challenge