A Collage Card (PDCC #183)

Hi friends.

Are you ready for a new color challenge at The Play Date Cafe?  This week, we have a fun sponsor, Elizabeth Mindemann, who sells Close To My Heart stamps. She has graciously provided the team with some beautiful pearl buttons. If you've been following my blog for a while, you know that I used to sell CTMH and it is one of my favorite stamp companies in the whole world.

Here's the colors we've got to work with:

And, since the collage style is so hip right now, I figured I'd give it a go for this card. I've used some brand new stamps from Hero Arts, and I colored my pearl buttons to match the colors.

Thanks for popping in and be sure to check out the beautiful works of art that the rest of the team has created over at The Play Date Cafe.

Soft and Casual (PDCC #181)

Popping in to share this week's new colors at The Play Date Cafe. This week we are going soft and casual.

I decided to pull out my more classy and elegant side for this collection and go with some ribbon, roses and pearls.

Believe it or not, those roses actually started out white. I died them in a cup of coffee and then spritzed them with a bit of glimmer mist.

This week's sponsor is Simon Says Stamp. Make your way over to The Cafe to see what they are offering for a prize and to get a glimpse of what the rest of the team has come up with.

A Splash of Magenta (PDCC #180)

It's time for everybody's favorite challenge at The Play Date Cafe - Color Splash! That means you get to create something black and white with just a hint of this week's suggested color, MAGENTA.

I had the perfect felt lying around to use on my card, and I was really inspired by the black and white stripes of the dress (not to mention I'm a little obsessed with stripes right now).

The flower is die cut triangles, and then I just ran a stitch through the two bottom corners of each one in one continuous line. Pull it taught and you have a pretty pointy flower. I also created that black and white stripe paper all by myself in digital format. And, because I'm the nicest of niceys, I'm sharing it with you. Just right click the image below and choose Save As to make it yours.

Black & White Stripe Digital Paper

This week's sponsor is Freckled Fun. Make a visit to The Cafe to see all of the eye candy from our design team, and then have a go at creating your own "splashy" project.

So Totally Wonderful (PDCC #179)

Here I am.
I know, it's crazy.
I must be living at the ball fields or something.

Lucky you, a brand new color story over at The Play Date Cafe has arrived! I'm gonna go with "fresh" as the word of the day for these.

I pulled out a few of my Technique Tuesday stamps and threw together a wonderful card for this challenge.

Seeing as how it is STILL in the 30's here, and it has been raining like a mother for the past week, I had a bit  o' trouble getting any good lighting. And, so it goes.

Take a peek into The Cafe to see what our sponsor, The Twinery, is offering up this week and to be inspired by our design team. And, while you're there, please help us say good-bye to our Private Blend Designer, Ashley Bores. I can't believe it's already time for her to go. You will be missed Ashley!

Enjoy the rest of your week friends.

Totally Epic Dude (PDCC #178)

Bright and sassy. That describes this week's colors at The Play Date Cafe. I can't even describe how much I'm loving the bright color trend right now. Neons, saturated colors and just about every shade of the rainbow is in style. I. Love. It!

Take a gander at what you've got to work with:

I'm really excited to be working with an equally fun and trendy stamp set from CAS-ual Fridays. That's this week's sponsor and I promise that these stamps won't disappoint you. It's been awhile since I've created a one layer card. I felt like the text in this set was perfect for a one-layer.

I used a yellow gel pen from Sakura to add the bit of splatter and color in the arrows. Make sure you pop into the Cafe for inspiration from the design team, and to see what you could win from our sponsor.

April Showers & Stripes

Have you guys seen the new challenge up at The Twinery this week? It's a short one, and you only have a week to play along, but I just had to jump in on this one because I'm obsessed with stripes right now. Have you been shopping at all? Stripes are everywhere!

I have these gorgeous cloud dies that I knew would be perfect for this one, and what better for rain than a little bit of STONE twine.

Let's see how you guys can kick it up a notch with stripes and twine!

BIG Thanks (PDCC #177)

Happy Thursday!

Are you ready for another inspirational photo collage and some masculine colors from The Play Date Cafe? Have at it!

I thought it was pretty darn cool that there was a Twinery color to match each one of these inspirational colors - midnight blue, caribbean, and mandarin. I wanted to pull them into my project. And, since they are slightly nautical, I though a few knots would fit perfectly. I'm a bit sad because one of my favorite ink colors has almost dried up, autumn terracotta from close to my heart. If you know of a good color that is similar, I'd love to hear about where I can get it.

The "Big Thanks" is a set from Technique Tuesday that is just too hip and cool. Make sure you take a peek over at The Cafe to see who this week's sponsor is and what prize is being offered. And, while you're there, why not check out the design team projects too!

Today was...Awesome

Hi friends. I've got a project up on The Twinery blog today, showing an easy way to create your own embellishment using one of the newest colors of twine - Copper Shimmer!

I've taken a plain old paper clip and have turned it into something spectacular that will give your projects a little punch of shine. Start at one end with a dab of glue and start winding the twine around your paper clip. Work your way around (I found that it slides pretty easily if you need to adjust it) until you reach the end and finish it off with another small dab of glue. Tie a bow on top, and you've got your very own dressed up embellishment. You could do this with any color of twine, and you could even make a few ahead of time to have on hand, or to give as gifts.

Have fun making your own twine embellishments and thanks for popping in!

Teacher Thanks (PDCC #176)

Hey friends. Well, baseball has officially started, and this year I'm coaching my 6-yr old daughter. This likely means that I will be making a lot less appearances on my blog over the coming weeks. I'll be having lots of fun out at the ball diamonds instead!

I'm popping in today with the latest Play Date Cafe challenge! We've got one super sponsor this week - Jenni Bowlin. Lucky us, we each got a few stamps to play with using this week's colors below.

I dug out some really old rub-ons to add over the top of those very unique and fun book cover stamps. I thought this would make a great thank you card for a teacher. Be sure to make your way over to The Play Date Cafe to be inspired by the rest of the design team and to see the work of our guests from the Jenni Bowlin team as well.

Bone Marrow Donation Day!

Here's the conclusion to my Bone Marrow Cell Donation! (The first post can be found HERE)

I've finally gathered up enough energy after my donation to sit down and pull this post together. I was really surprised at how wiped out I was yesterday. Just a warning; if you are one of those with a wimpy stomach, you may not want to look at these pictures. A lot of them show the blood collection.

Tuesday was my donation day. Hubs and I drove to the hospital at 7:30 in the morning to arrive at 8 am! They were all ready for me and already had the Apheresis machine up and running when I got there. Nothing will wake you up like two shots, in the arm, first thing in the morning! I got two more doses of the Filgrastim drug to help push out a few more of the stem cells before everything got started. It's interesting to note that the normal person usually has about 5 million cells floating around. After the injections and before the draw, I had about 27 million. That's 5x the normal amount! The drug did what it was supposed to. I actually ended up with about 33 AFTER it was all finished, so the drug was still working even after it was all done.

Here I am waiting to get all hooked up - and I switched to some awesome clown hospital pants beforehand since the nurse said it would make potty time much easier.

All hooked up now. That IV in my left arm hurt like a son of a gun at first.

All of the blood drawn from my right arm, is mixed with an anti-coagulant (to keep the blood from clotting) and then run through the machine. The top tube is whole blood. The middle tube is the anti-coagulant, and the bottom is the mixed.

This is what the machine looks like.

The blood gets spun around in a centrifuge. The heaviest cells (the red blood cells) fall to the bottom, and the good cells (the white blood cells, which have the marrow stem cells with them) are drawn to the top and skimmed off into a bag (the bag all the way to the right). Once they skim off the cells they need, they put the rest through a warmer (the circular thing marked with a 2) and then it goes right back into my left arm. They also pulled off some plasma (second bag from the right) to help sustain the viability of the donation.

My sweet son offered for me to take his brand new tablet with me to watch TV. I tried to pass the time by watching an episode of The Walking Dead, but then my machine kept beeping and they had to play with the needle a bit to get it running again. So, I gave up on that idea.

Since I was immobilized, Toby had to feed me. Now, that's love! I told him this is what it would be like if I ever lost my arms. :)

While there, I discovered that my recipient would need about twice as many cells as they normally need, so I had to be on the machine a little bit longer than usual. It ended up being about 4.5 hours total. We were shooting for 5 million cells in the bag, but ended up with 4.3. According to the nurse, that was a really good donation! Everything went SO smoothly and they were marveling at the amount of cells that my body had produced. They also acted really surprised that my symptoms from the drug were so mild. I just know it was because so many people were praying for me! So, THANK YOU to everyone for your support, kind words, encouragement and prayers. I felt it throughout the entire process.

And, here it is, the end product. Look at that bag - it is FULL! It measured out to about 2 cups.

So, let's talk about the recipient a little bit. It was mentioned that she would probably be receiving the cells the next morning. Before all of this started, I knew that there was a chance that I may never hear a single thing about my recipient. All I knew was that she was a 44-yr old female who has Leukemia. After my donation, the rep from the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) stopped by and told me that she would probably be able to give me an update in a week or so, and then at 30 days. So, I was very thankful to hear that. That is not always the case with all donors. I continue to pray for the recipient and I even sent the card below along with my cells to tell her hi. Well, OF COURSE, I had to send a handmade card along. ;)

The day after, I was pretty darn wiped out. And, today, I'm still a little bit tired, but much more coherent. Emotionally, I think there may have been a little bit of an anxiety comedown. I've been kinda teary and sensitive the past two days. Let's face it, this whole thing did give me a bit of added stress. They've told me it will take about a week for my cells to level out and all to be back to normal. And, by the way, needle pokes totaled 16.

And that's the end....for now. I continue to pray for my recipient and hope to meet her someday. It will be a year before I am allowed to meet her, and only if she wants to. This whole thing has been such a blessing to me and I just can't get over the fact that God chose me to be able to bless someone in this way.

I wanted to share all of this because I think there are a lot of people who are really scared of this process. I wanted to show people that it really wasn't that big of a deal, and I think that the little bit that I had to go through was completely worth the possible outcome of saving someone else's life. I also think it's good for people to gain some perspective into how easy it can be for us to give just a little bit of ourselves and to be able to make a huge difference. And, I wouldn't be a good Christian if I didn't share how much I believe God had a hand in all of this. I fully expect miracles. God will be glorified, in one way or another.

Again, thank you for all of your support and for sharing this journey with me. I can't wait to share the update in a year when I meet my very life-filled recipient! If you are age 18-44, I encourage you to take the leap and JOIN THE REGISTRY and maybe you can save a life too!

Welcome April!

Hi Guys!

Welcome to my very first post as a member of The Twinery team. Today, I'm featuring a cute and simple little banner for the Banner Day Challenge, featuring the newest twine!

The draping rows of twine on this banner are the star of the show! To create this, begin by cutting about a 3' section of twine in each color (I have used Strawberry, Seaweed, Ocean, and Midnight Blue). Lay all of them out flat on a table. Tie the far left end of all of the sections together. Move down about 6" and tie a loose knot. By leaving the knot loose, you can pull the sections of twine towards the left to create the drape. Once you are happy with how they drape, you can tighten the knot. Simply work your way down until you're at the end. Then, die cut some scalloped circles and label with your favorite stickers.

This banner can be adapted to fit any kind of party. You can even make it a bit smaller and use it to top a cake!

Now, it's your turn to play along. Link up here by 11:59pm on March 28th, you could win these fabulous prizes!

Four bottles of Heidi Swapp Color Shine and.....

Two spools of baker's twine!

Have fun playing along!

Bone Marrow Donation: Shots Day 3 &4

(I have been matched as a bone marrow donor for a stranger. I've been documenting the process on my blog. If you haven't been keeping up with the process, you can start HERE)

Very fatigued today.

On Saturday night (Day 2), I was feeling pretty darn achy. My lower back was experiencing some throbbing, and I found that when I would sit down after walking around for a while that my spine and rib cage would throb for a few seconds as well. That night was the pits. Most parts of my body were very achy and I ended up giving in and taking some Tylenol before bed.

I slept like a rock that night. And, yesterday morning, I fully expected to wake up feeling achy all over again. But, the prayer team at Church must've prayed for me that morning and I felt a-maz-ing! I went to Church with the only symptom being a teensy weensy headache and a little bit of a tight chest. I haven't had a single ache since then. I'm so glad I've got God on my team.

Today is Day 4 of the shots. As I mentioned above, I'm feeling pretty lethargic. But, again, that's my only symptom. Unfortunately, we got about 8" of snow last night. Every time we get even a little bit of snow around here, people freak out. So, the kids have a snow day. So much for a nice, quiet, lazy day. Luckily, I have some pretty darn good kids who are happy sitting and watching movies and who can entertain themselves.

My needle poke count is up to 10 - 2 shots each time. My kids get to watch the process and they keep asking me what it feels like. I say, less than a bee sting, even though I've never been stung by a bee in my life.  I like that they get to experience it all first hand. Monkey see, monkey do.

Tomorrow is the big day. I was told to expect to be at the hospital from about 8-3. They will administer one last injection when I arrive, and then about an hour later, start the drawing process. My husband is taking the day off to be with me. I'm pretty excited to document it all and to share photos with you guys.

I just can't get over how blessed I am to be able to have this opportunity. I know lots of people are praying for both me AND the recipient. That recipient has no idea just how many people are praying on her behalf. I love that. It feels amazing to be able to share God's glory with someone I don't even know.

Until tomorrow (or the next day, since tomorrow will be pretty darn busy).

Bone Marrow Update: Shots Day #2

Yesterday I got three more needle pokes. One was for drawing a tube of blood as a baseline, and the other two were in the arm from the Filgrastim drug injections. I can't even remember the last time I got a shot. It was sorta fun to have one. But, I'm not afraid of needles either. In fact, I find the whole thing very fascinating.

Praise the Lord, I did not have any kind of reaction to the drug. So, we are on to Day 2 of 5 for the injections.

When I left the blood center yesterday, I started to develop a dull headache. Nothing too disturbing. More annoying than anything, but it isn't preventing me from functioning like normal. This morning, I have a small ache in my lower back. I can't decide if it is from the drug, or from the intense workout I did yesterday (I was trying to keep my mind off of things). I also didn't sleep very well and am pretty tired. But, some of that is probably from me being anxious about the whole process.

The nurse will be coming out to my house today at the same time to administer the second injections. She was really nice. All of the people I have met during this process have been fantastic and very accommodating. I love that they come to your home.

I suspect that the symptoms will become much more intensified after today's injection. But, again, this is all nothing in comparison to what the recipient is going through.

Until tomorrow.

Bone Marrow Update: Shots Day #1

(I have been matched as a bone marrow donor for a stranger. I've been documenting the process on my blog. If you haven't been keeping up with the process, you can start HERE)

Today is the first day of my injections that draw out the bone marrow cells from inside of my bones into my blood stream. It will be the fourth time that I've been poked with a needle since all of this has started. Yes, I'm keeping track, just for fun.

You might be wondering how I'm feeling about all of this emotionally. Am I scared? A little bit. Or, maybe I'm just anxious from the unknown. There's always the unknown factors that can freak a person out. When the nurse tells me that she has to monitor me after the injections to see if I react, that causes a tiny bit of uneasiness. 

But, then I remember that God is in control. 

And, I gain perspective. Somewhere in the world, there's an individual being hammered with chemotherapy. That person has been sick for a while. Their body has been attacked and they have been told that this is the only way they will survive. They may have lost hope. They may have family that has watched their health decline. They are sick, tired, and ready for it all to be over. I don't pretend to know what it's like for them. I don't know, but I imagine it to be pretty horrible. 

THAT is perspective. I think that my unknowns seem pretty small in the big picture of things. My one week of discomfort seems minuscule in comparison. If it was my mom, child, friend; I would hope that someone would do it for me too.

I don't know what to expect. I watched a few donor videos that talked about the symptoms. They all say Day 2 is when you start to feel achy. I guess I'm expecting to feel like I have a really bad flu for a few days. It all starts at 12:30 pm EST.

Until tomorrow's update.......

Cheering On Spring (PDCC #174)

The calendar says it's spring. Punxsutawney Phil says it's spring. But, outside, it sure does still feel like winter to me. Boo. Maybe this week's Play Date Cafe colors will help kick old man winter out the door.

Some brighties to brighten your day! And, how about a card with flowers to send you into spring land?

This week, the Cafe is being sponsored by The Craft's Meow. And, it's their 2 year anniversary! Hooray. Congrats on celebrating another year in business!

So, have you guys heard of The Harlem Shake? Last week, I looked it up because I've heard so many people talking about it. SO.....dumb. But, then over the weekend, I was visiting my sisters and we were all sitting around at midnight, totally bored. My niece pipes up and says, "we should make a harlem shake video". So, we did. It's totally amateur. I guess that's what you get at one in the morning, with a sister who is completely technology deficient (we had to tape using her web cam, that's why it's so blurry). But, we made it work. We laughed. We had a good time and that's all that matters. If you want to get a kick out of our late night boredom, I've included the video below.

Did you figure out which one was me?
Thanks for stopping by today and make sure you pop into The Play Date Cafe!

Exciting News

Hey everyone! I've got some really exciting news to share....

I'm joining the team at The Twinery!

Hip, hip, hooray!!!

I'm SO looking forward to designing alongside the rest of this fabulous team, and I can't wait to get started working with their amazing product. I've got some great ideas brewing in this head of mine and am anxious to put them together for all of you to see.

Let's get the celebration party started with a project, shall we? I created this using STONE twine. I know everyone is looking forward to spring, but I figured I would kick winter out the door with one last card.

And, while we're sharing fun news, I also hear there are some new colors of twine being released today. Sounds pretty exciting to me. You'll want to check them out over in the Twinery store.

Thanks for sharing my news with me! Have a great week!

Card Creations Blog Hop Winner

I just wanted to pop in here quick today to announce the winner of the Card Creations 11 Blog Hop. Random.org chose comment #38, and the winner of a copy of this very special issue is (drum roll)...

LORI BARNETT

Congratulations Lori and thanks for hopping along! Please email me with your snail mail address, so we can get your prize off to you. Thank you to everyone for your sweet, sweet comments. I truly enjoy reading each and every one of them.

Have a great day!

March Studio AE Tag Banner

This month, I'm helping showcase all of the fun ways you can use the March Studio AE kit. It's got some really great sentiments you can use on your scrapbook pages, Project Life albums, and even for making cards, as I showcased on Sunday.

I'm terrified of actually starting an album, but something I CAN do is create a small project that showcases a few of my favorite photos from my trip to Florida this past summer. Check it out:

 This was SUPER simple to make. I printed out my photos onto some photo paper (I apparently used the world's cheapest photo paper, because the ink scratched off every time I touched it, as you can see on a few of the photos). I then die cut them into the tag shape and added the sentiments and embellishments. That vertical sentiment works perfectly as a little tag all on its own!

Here's what you all get with this stamp set.

You can find this over at the Technique Tuesday Store and learn more about Studio AE there too.

Thanks for stopping in today!

Operation Tween Room Makeover: Reveal

Friday was my dear sweet Haley's birthday. You may remember that getting her own room was on her wishlist (original post HERE). So, we decided to convert our guest room into her very own space. The key was to keep it a secret, and to do it on a budget of $100. I had to put on my creative thinking cap to stay on that budget. Are you ready for the reveal?

Let me begin by saying that she put a tiny bit of a damper on things by being home sick for 3 days last week. I had to be very Sneaky McSneakerson about what I was doing. Luckily, she's incredibly naive and I convinced her that we were fixing up the guest room to prepare it for selling the house. That's not a total fib, since we plan to do that in a year or so. On Friday, I told her I was still working on her gift and that she had to stay downstairs.

Here's how it all came together. Unfortunately, the room is pretty small, so I wasn't able to get a picture of everything together, but you get the idea.

PROJECTS 1 & 2: I made the curtains using some Casa Satin. I love this fabric because it has such a great feel and sheen to it, but it's not nearly as tough to stitch as a real satin. I tied them off with some 3" grosgrain ribbon. And, the lamp was recycled from Goodwill (you can read about it in the original post).

I also printed out a photo of Haley to place on her dresser. Oh, and the earring holder was a Pinterest project I made for her birthday last year. It's just door screening stapled to a frame.

You guys have already seen that the frames are filled with scrapbook paper I found. The "H" is actually a project I submitted to Paper Crafts a while back for the Die Cutting issue. I used my Cricut and Mod Podge to cover it with those pretty shapes.

The bedding was from Target and was the jumping off point for everything.

PROJECT #3 - I created a cork board for her to hang all of her favorite photos and projects on. I recycled an old wooden picture frame by spray painting it with a gloss black. I then backed it with some cork board that I found at JoAnn's.

You've probably also noticed that we really love IKEA. The rail system, dresser and rug are all steals from there.

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I did go over budget a bit. The total cost of everything ended up at about $150, but we chalked up the cost of painting as a home improvement project we would've done anyway.

And, just for fun, here she is enjoying the reveal. Sorry about the dark part at the beginning. It was in the hallway and very poor lighting. But, we covered her eyes and led her to the top of the stairs. There was a sign on her door that said "Haley's Room" on it. It took her a little bit to see it.

By the way, THANK YOU to all of you that have been praying for me and the entire Bone Marrow Donation process. All three of my kids were sick this past week/weekend with really high fevers. I was scared to death that I was going to get sick. If I did, I wouldn't be able to donate. So far, so good! Your prayers are being answered. Thank YOU!