Published! Cards for Paula and the Sketch!

This will be a long post so please bear with me as I have something to ask of you, my readers.

First I’m going to brag a little on myself. Two years ago I sent in one of my favorite Thomas Kinkade cards to RubberStampMadness in hopes of being published. Never heard a word until this summer! It is in their Nov/Dec/Jan issue.

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This past weekend I did a Stamp Camp for a friend of mine. She wanted a bundle of all occasion cards. I browsed through SCS and mixed cards left and right until I got 7 cards I was happy with to share with the ladies. The camp was actually 2 days as not everyone could make it the first day so I had double the cards for myself.

Now what am I going to do with all these cards you ask? Well back on Sept 23 about 6pm just a few miles from our house, Paula had walked down her driveway to get her mail (on her side of the road)...a pickup pulling a flat trailer (narrow country roads)was coming up the road, the trailer somehow came off the truck, struck Paula head on and stopped in the neighbor’s yard about 100 ft away!!

Paula’s right leg, her tibia and fibula were broken and everything from her knee down was torn away. She also sustained fractures in her back which required screws to be inserted (c4-c7) and (t1-t5). She also had a brain injury at her brain stem.

She has been through quite a bit of surgeries since then and is now breathing on her own during the day. (To read more about her day to day progress, please see My Story) She has 2 young teens and runs the only florist shop in our town. But those bills will be piling up so as a community, we are putting together a dinner and a silent auction to help the family with the cost.

Mom and I have decided to donate a basket of stamped cards and altered (small) items to be auctioned off. So all those double cards I just made this past weekend are going into the basket. And this is where you come in. If you have any cards/small altered items that you’d like to donate for this basket, we’d sure appreciate it! And of course the recipient will end up with the best ever basket!! (please include envelopes with your card) Email me at hillmanfam@woh.rr.com with Cards for Paula in the subject line and I will email you my address as I don’t wish to post it on here. We would like to have all the items by Dec.1st.

Here are the cards from the stamp camp that I am putting in the basket (just realized one is missing!)

inside of card (the stamps used on this card are from Our Craft Lounge – Autumn Garden)



For today’s sketch252 I used two sets from Our Craft Lounge; Giving Thanks and Nuts About You. I used the leaf border from Giving Thanks to make a frame that I colored with prismacolor markers and then cut out completely. It is attached with Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots. The squirrel is from Nuts about You and is also attached with Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots. The nut border is from Nuts About You and once again I cut it out completely. On the green strip I combined the images from Giving Thanks and Nuts About You and stamped them in Versamark.

Thanks for looking and please consider donating some cards to Paula’s basket. Life can change in the blink of an eye.

Weekend Get Away an a card

This coming weekend is our 16th anniversary. Two weeks ago, hubby surprised me by saying we could go away for a weekend. Well the only weekend that would work out was this past weekend. So I found us a bed & breakfast for the first night and a hotel for the next night. Now you may think this was easy to do but I had two things against me. One it was Sweetest day this past Saturday (did you remember?) and Two it’s peak season because of the leaves changing here in Ohio.

On Friday we headed off to Lucas, Ohio to a cute Bed & Breakfast called AngelWoods Hideaway. Let me tell you, if you ever need a place just to get away… this is it! The hosts, John & Vikki, put you right at ease. She gave us a tour of the entire place, showed us where coffee would be served right outside our door first thing in the morning. Even offered to cook us dinner that night but we opted to go out instead. They even have a movie library to choose from if you wish to watch something in your room that night. Breakfast can be served in your room or you can join the other guests in the dinning room and eat your fill. We decided to join the 2 other couples (also from Ohio) for breakfast which consist of Stuffed French toast with an Apple Cider syrup, scrambled eggs with mushrooms or without, bacon, sausage and fruit salad. I think all of us were so stuffed after breakfast because we sat around and chatted for half an hour or so before heading to our separate rooms to pack up.

Here is a slide show of AngelWoods and a lookout point just a mile or so down the road we went to when we left.

We then headed to Mohican State Park to do some hiking before heading into Amish country and our next stop for the evening. It even rained and hailed on us but we still enjoyed our time. Here is some pictures from that adventure.

Last stop for the day was Amish Door in Wilmot, Ohio. We stayed at the hotel and at the Amish Door. There was a line but it is so worth the wait! That pumpkin pie cappuccino was yummy! We also did some geo caching on our way home Sunday as there was on at the Amish Door and a few others I wanted to get. Here is pictures from Amish Country (including two buggies on the road in front of us! shhh)

Now if you are still with me, It’s time for the card!  Today’s Try New Technique was to make a Wiper Card. You can find the directions here for the Wiper Card. 

I made the card to send to the hosts of AngelWoods. (yes, I enjoyed my visit that much! Plus she is a scrapbooker and we talked about stamping etc)

I used Giving Thanks and Autumn Garden by Our Craft Lounge, Prismacolor markers and copics to color and Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots to pop up the wreath. The main card’s layout is from Beate’s Weekend Sketch.

Thank you for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed my pictures as much as we enjoyed our time away.

Pumpkin patch, Pumpkin Pie (recipe) and Thank You Card

About every 5 yrs or so our local library takes the Storytime program on a field trip to the local pumpkin patch. Last week was our field trip to Circle Farms. The kids get to take a hay ride through the pumpkin patch with Dale stopping and picking different kinds of pumpkins/gourds and telling about them. They then go back and get a story or two read to them and get a snack (usually a pumpkin cookie and cider). When all the activities are done, we pay our little fee and then the kids get to pick out a gourd and a pie pumpkin to bring home. They also get a coloring book on pumpkins. Here is a small slide show of our field trip.

This year, Jorden wanted to make a pumpkin pie from a pumpkin so we bought an extra one. Of course that day we had the field trip was cold and I already had the start of a cold so we didn't get the pie made until yesterday. We even made our crust from scratch! Here is the link to the recipe we used that will show you how to use a 'real' pumpkin and even has the recipe for the crust. (we used half shortening and half butter in our crust... will make sense when you read the directions) http://www.pickyourown.org/pumpkinpie.php The kids thought it was a little too runny when we ate it yesterday. But after letting it sit over night, it is perfect! I even had a piece for breakfast today!

Jorden cleaning the seads out of the pumpkin before we cooked it.

Jorden rolling out the pie crust.

Jorden mixing the pie filling. Notice our nice pie crust.

Our Pumpkin Pie (yes we had whip cream on it.. when we ate it that is) all done next to the other pumpkins Jorden got at Circle Farms.

I used today's sketch 249 to make a thank you card to send to Circle Farms for giving us a tour,etc. I used Nuts About You from Our Craft Lounge. The squirrel was colored with copics. Pumpkins, acorns, leaves are stamped on the green in versamark. (yes, the main card is green, not getting a good shot of it today and too windy to take a picture outside) The sentiment and image are on dimensions. Leaf brads instered into the ribbon.

Sickie with a late card and Sale link!

Last week my kids had the cold and it was only a matter of time that I got it. Guess what? I got it!! Boy has it hit me hard from Wend on. Of course it didn't help that I was outside on a field trip Wend morning when it was cold. (more on that in a seperate post)

So anyways Wend is Sketch day on SCS. I always try to do the sketch. I did do it but the cold hit me so hard that I just now have the energy to upload it!!

I used Jolly Ornaments from Our Craft Lounge along with the ornament cuttlebug folder. I added Champagne Mist (shimmer paint) to the cuttlebug piece and to the individual ornaments. Scalloped square punch was used on the green and Christmas Matstack for the design paper. A simple quick Christmas card that would be perfect for mass production.

I used Helmar's Adhesive Runner to hold my card together. I'll have to admit, I've been using it more then my ATG gun!! And guess what? Helmar is having a sale on the runners! So run over to Helmar USA Design Team and see how you can get your hands on some. Wholesale inquiries are welcomed!