A happy and lucky day!!!

   What a joy it was to be reading my emails this morning and find one that hinted that I should go over to the Simon Says Stamp Challenge Blog and take a peek at the Winner post!  Of course, I quickly hopped on over and was delighted to find that I was the VERY lucky randomly drawn winner of last week's "Have a Heart" challenge.  And the prize is awesome for me, because it's a store credit for $50 and I always have a wish list of new goodies piling up!!   My thanks to everyone at Simon Say Stamp for this awesome gift!!   You made my day start perfectly.   I'm also happy to share another photo of this card, and also owe a shout out to "Vicki Dutcher" who's card inspired this one that I created for the SSS Challenge along with last week's MUSE Challenge!!
   

    That card, sadly came in very handy after one of my friends lost her Mom over the weekend.   And the sadness seems to continue as today a very close friend called me to let me know her Mom had passed in the night.  The only saving grace is that both of these wonderful women had been sick for a very long time and also have been in Nursing Homes, something neither family was happy about.  They also lived many happy years and both had wonderful families filled with magical moments with their children and grandchildren and these types are deaths are a bit easier to handle than sudden and tragic deaths, that we all know far too well.  My heart goes out to both families and I know they will always cherish the memories of their Moms.

  When I started to make a second card, for Patty this morning, I decided that I wanted it to be much like the card above, because I have received so many wonderful comments on it.  This is that card and I think she will like it very much!!  There was a time that Patty used to be into cardmaking and that was back when we both we first learning.  We spent a lot of time together creating, taking classes, and of course shopping for our supplies.  I really WISH she would try it again, but she kind of stopped when she actually had her Mom living for her for over a year.  She also works full-time and has three adorable grandchildren to keep her very busy.  Something I do hope I will someday have too!!

   My next card was created for with a few challenges in mind, the first being the latest challenge over at the  Simon Says Stamp Challenge blog where the them is create cards/projects that feature Memory Box products, which is a JOY to me, because I love their dies and also am a big fan of their stamps and their papers!!!  My all time favorite paper pad if Viola by Memory Box and I still am 'hoarding' a small amount.    

    OOPS!!  My Mistake --  UPDATE:  I just now realized that I did not exactly have the theme correct --- it's actually called "Get Krafty" and the idea was to use Kraft cardstock with the option of adding Memory Box dies!!   So, this card will not be submitted, as planned, but I do hope to make something new with the Kraft them too!  

    However,  I am very happy and excited to be submitting  this card to the current "Anything Goes" challenge over at "Through the Craftroom Door".  I welcome you all to join me and come on over and play and/or sign up to subscribe to the publication, which is the owned and created by one of my long time craft friends -- Colleen Holmes, who also is created "The Outlawz Challenges" a wonderful online challenge site that offer a new challenge every day of the week!!

     My "Heartfelt Wishes" card is also being submitted to the "Sketch Or "Use the Color Green" challenge, being hosted over at the "Digi Sketch Challenge", which is brand new to me and one I have now added to my bookmarks!! 

   My next card was also inspired by another of my favorite challenges, and this one is for the current MUSE challenge, which you'll find on their blog here!!   This week's MUSE is Therese Calvird and she made this very fun and very creative water-color card, which I have copied over to share!!

Therese's MUSE Card

My Take

   My card was created with a older digi image from "A Day For Daisies", that I actually duplicated to make it long enough to g across the card.   I then printed it out onto Cryogen white cardstock (my personal favorite for Copic Coloring) and colored the flowers to match the colors on Therese's card.  I then added two thin black border, a fun little sentiment from Hero Arts (Find Joy-CL497) and finished it off by adding some matching bling.  I actually colored the white pearls to match the card.  

   That card made me think of Spring so I took another digi image, also a row of flowers, this one from Digi Stamp Boutique and created another card using the same basic design.   I chose a pretty pink background for this one and also added a digi sentiment, which is perfect for Spring.   I will be submitting this one to DSB's February Customer Challenge, which you'll find on their design team blog  HERE!!    

  And that's it for today!   I am now heading downstairs to feed to pups and also think about what I am going to make for dinner!!    I am also going to re-print out the challenge information for the SSS challenge and "highlight" the words Kraft, so I can hopefully get started on another card tomorrow!!   We are expecting another nasty day....they are still not sure if we'll have snow to rain, all snow, or maybe even all rain, but either way, it's going to be a stormy day with high winds and that's never good here on the coast.  I'll be fine as long as we don't lose the power and I can enough the dogs to go out, as needed.  But, if all else fails, all I can say is thank goodness for Puppy Pads!!