Happy 4th of July

On this July 4th, please remember all of the brave men and women who have sacrificed for us to have a free country. This includes all of those from 1776 to 2012. Not only have many given the ultimate sacrifice of their lives but many more have given time away from their loved ones. Many have missed seeing babies born, children graduate and many special events that most parents just take for granted. When a man or woman is in the military serving our country, they can't just take time off to go see their child be born or celebrate an important birthday or event. Especially, when they are deployed somewhere overseas, they have to miss many family times. This also means that the families are sacrificing for our nation's freedom. The children who miss their mommy or daddy because they are serving overseas are making sacrifices also. The spouces who go to bed by themselves at night time are making sacrifices.

I know. I've watched family members make these sacrifices and I am proud of each and every one of them. From my daughter and my grandchildren who lovingly and somewhat willingly give my son-in-law up so he can be a career Army chaplain to my grandson who spent 4 years in the Air Force. I also have another grandson who will be going to basic training for the Marines in just a few weeks. I love them all and I am very proud of what they are willing to do for our country. Next time you see a person in uniform, take a minute to say "thank you for your service." They really do need to hear it!

All of us in the USA can be proud to be an American!

Fixing Mistakes

It is so easy to make a mistake, a goof, a mess when you are paper crafting. If you're working with digital, all you do is hit the Undo button and start over. With paper crafting, there isn't an Undo button. But there are as many ways to fix a mistake as there are mistakes that you might make. Now, how would I know anything about fixing mistakes? Ha Ha!! It's obvious! It's because I'm human just like you and I make plenty of mistakes. I just don't show them to you!

Here are a couple of ideas that might help you in the future.

Have you ever stamped your image on cardstock that you've already used pieces of? You want your paper to go as far as possible so you try to get the most of every little piece. So I stamped a doily on cardstock that I had already stamped several images on and cut them out. When I went to punch it out with my circle punch, I was too close to where I had already cut out other images.

You can see that this isn't quite a circle. One part has a straight line and another part has a niche cut out of it. This could really make the whole card look bad. I don't want to go back and cut close to the actual image and I don't want to start over or throw this piece away. The fix is to place one part sticking off the card so that you will trim this off. You place another image or ribbon overlapping the other part. No one can see the mistakes and they won't know unless you tell them!

Now, I made this card several weeks ago and had it leaning against my embellishment drawers in my craft room. While we do have a/c in our house, this is the hottest room of the house. I had several days when I had other things I HAD to do and didn't get in to do any crafting. I assume that the adhesive melted slightly because the whole center piece had slid on top of the ribbon. It was much worse than in this picture but I tried to fix it before I took the picture. It seems logical to me that the green scalloped square would have been in the middle but the butterfly had wings trimmed off where they stuck out over the edge of the card. Any way, even though I've got it bad where it must have been, the whole card now looks lop-sided. I really don't like all the empty red space. There are times that empty space looks good and has a purpose but this just doesn't seem to be one of them.

So what am going to do? Add more ribbon! By adding another piece of the stitched ribbon to the left side of the card, it looks like it was planned that way.

There are so many things you can do to fix a mistake. All you have to do is use your imagination!

I Don't Do Pink Pink

I don't do pink very often but I thought I'd give it a try so here is what I came up with. I used lots of tools on this. I do love tools!

Word Window punch #119857
Teeny Tiny wishes stamp set #115370
Melon Mambo 1/2" Polka Dot Grosgrain ribbon #125409
Scallop Edge Border punch #119882
1 3/4" Circle Scallop punch #119854
1 1/4" Circle punch #119860
Summer Smooches DSP #125409
Printed Petals stamp set #120444
Primrose Petals In Color ink
Wild Wasibi classic ink
Adornments In Color Dahlia Assortment #127556
Stampin' Diminsionals #104430
Glue Dots #103683

Sunday Share

My friend, Cheri's dad, Bob Jones is in a better place now. We know that he is in heaven with our Lord. Be praying for Cheri, her mom, Milie, and her aunt, Marian. They are wonderful ladies of faith but I know this is still a difficult time.

A Matter of Moments

Elements of Style #120045
Old Olive 1/2" Grosgrain Striped ribbon #113883
2 3/8" Scallop Circle punch #118874
Large Oval  punch #119855
Raspberry Ripple In color ink
Gunball Green In color ink
Floral District DSP #126919
Brights Brads collection #119740

Sorry I don't have time to give you the step by step directions for this today. My very good friend's dad passed away yesterday morning and I've been very busy. I'll try to get back to my regular routine soon.

Priority Birthday

Had fun recreating an envelope for this birthday card. Used my new In Colors for most of this and my punches.
Materials:
Hostess only set Priority Mail(#127044)
Gumball Green 3/8" Stain Stitched ribbon(#126848)
Brights Brads(#119740)
Floral District(#126919) patterned paper
Summer Starfruit cardstock
Curly Label(#119851) punch
1 3/8" Square(#119877) punch
      (Wish I had the Postage Stamp punch(#122344). It would have been perfect! That's the one I get next!)
Modern Label(#119849) punch
Word Window(#119857) punch
Large Oval(#119855) punch
2 1/2" Circle(#120906) punch

This is super easy to put together so go have some fun with it! All the stamps are in the Priority Mail hostess only set.

Ways to Use Ribbon

These are all ways that you can use ribbon on your cards and/or scrapbook pages. I hope that these ideas will spark your imagination.

1. Tie a bow around your cards
2. Glue a strip acoss your card, horizontally or vertically

3. Outline shapes
4. As a road to stamp cars, trucks, etc on
5. As curtains on a window of a stamped house
6. To make a komono on a paper doll
7. To make a V accent from a small piece

         Adhere it with either a staple or glue dots













8. To decorate a box on your page like a gift
9. Make ribbon flowers
10. To go around a picture as a frame
11. To use in iris folding instead of strips of paper

12. On a balloon as the string













13. To "hang" pictures on a scrapbook page
14. As stems for flowers
15. Tie on a journaling tag
16. Make a clothesline
17. Tie around a snowman's neck like a scarf

18. As a trailer behind a truck













19. For a ruffle on a clown's hat or costume
20. To make photo corners
21. As candles

22. Add to a scallop circle for an award

23. Stripes on a flag
24. Lines for journal words
25. Handles on a purse

26. As a pull tab for hidden journaling













I love to use ribbon on my cards and scrapbook pages. Hope this gives you some ideas!