Back Home...

...and SICK! The morning we were to 'fly' back home, my husband woke feeling as if he had a 'stomach virus' and it lasted for the entire trip home....Thankfully, the flight wasn't completely full and there was an empty seat next to my husband allowing him some room to 'stretch out' and not worry so much about making others sick. After a long and unexpected landing delay ( due to a thunder storm in Baltimore that took it's sweet time in passing--our flight was actually diverted to Virginia to wait out the storm and refuel the airplane), we finally landed shortly after midnight. Prior to leaving for our visit with the kiddo's, our 35th anniversary came and went without being celebrated and we had discussed the idea of staying an extra day in Baltimore once we returned, celebrating the anniversary at that time. Well....because dh was still sick and I was beginning to feel the symptoms of a chest cold coming on, we decided to get a hotel for the night and travel on back home the next day, which we did. Poor hubby was getting progressively worse and I could hardly talk because of the congestion in my chest, but we were determined to get home where we could 'suffer' in the comfort of our own home, errrr, bed! We arrived home around 2:30 in the afternoon and didn't even bother to bring our luggage into the house but went straight to our room, showered, changed into bed clothes and went straight to bed. By the next day, hubby was beginning to feel a little better, but my 'cold' is still hanging on and I can barely talk. Tylenol is helping with the sore throat but I'm still coughing quite a lot and feel as if I have an ear-ache. Fortunately, I already had a doctor appointment scheduled for early next week and if this isn't better by that time, I'm sure the Doc will probably have me on an antibiotic...because I have asthma and this type of cold often develops into a sinus infection for me, my doc usually takes an aggressive approach, not wanting the symptoms to get 'out-of-hand'.

So, as much as I want to sit and create a card to share with all of you, I just don't have the energy right now. Hopefully this will soon pass and I will feel like 'creating' something to share with all of you.

Thanks for being patient with me....I will be back just as soon as I can.

Until next time,


Make time to create but remember to have fun and enjoy the experience.
Barbg(WV)

Leaving, on an Jet plane....

I'm packing my bags, getting ready to go......I'm soooooooooooooo excited can't wait to go......But, it won't be long and I'll be back again.......

Yeah, I know...I took a little liberty with the words of that famous John Denver song, but I just couldn't help myself, LOL!

My husband and I are headin' south tomorrow morning for a short visit with 2 of the cutest little 'Southern Belle's' ....yeah, I know my opinion might be somewhat biased as these are 2 of my 4 beautiful and gorgeous granddaughters. Since 3 of the 4 granddaughters live with their parents in the deep south, I refer to them as my sweet little Southern Belles! The 2 Belle's pictured above belong to my oldest daughter and her husband and we are excited to see them all again.

When I get back later next week, maybe I'll have a few pictures to share.....I've got to remember to pack the camera and the camera card!

Have a great time while I'm gone and I do hope some of you will think about participating in the PMSSC01 challenge......scroll down to the post, 'A Sketchy Debut' for details!

See ya' when I get back home,

Until next time,

Make time to create, but remember to have fun and enjoy the experience,
Barbg(WV)

..........................Leaving on a jet plane.........La, La, La, Lalalalala...............

'Two Hearts As One' -- Caleb Creations

My husband and I love having a few 'family traditions', whether it be just the two of us or with our children and/or grandchildren. All of our children are now grown, married, and have families of their own and only our middle daughter and her family live close to us. This same daughter has blessed us with 3 grandsons and a soon-to-be adopted granddaughter, with her boys being the oldest of our grandchildren. Well, a few years ago, my husband and our oldest grandson, Gabe, (who was 8 at the time) took a trip to a 6 Flags Amusement Park during the summer school break. It was just the two of them and they had a fabulous time together, so much so, that the following summer they wanted to go again....and of course, they had another fantastic time together. Although exhausted from all of the 'fun', Gabe would share his excitement of each trip with his younger brothers...who at those times, were too young to join them and were eager to hear about each trip. And as you might imagine, the younger grandsons were a bit envious and kept asking my husband when they would be allowed to take part in all of the 'fun'! During one of the visits with 'our boys', the younger ones kept asking (hounding,actually) Papa when they would be allowed to go with him to the water parks. Realizing he couldn't 'hold them off' much longer, my husband proclaimed, 'You have to be at least 6 years old before you will qualify to join the 'water park tradition'. Awe, the sad faces really got to my heart, but I also knew it would be difficult for Papa to handle 3 boys all by himself on such a trip, and quickly determined he had been wise in declaring such a 'rule'. Suddenly our middle grandson, Christian -- who is our family Math Whiz, began jumping up and down with excitement and gleefully announced to everyone, ' I get to go next summer because I'm gonna be 6 this year"! My husband, who bless his heart has such a difficult time remembering all of the birthdays taking place in our family these days, immediately realized what he had 'said' and what he had 'meant' to say were not the same! What he actually had been thinking was that since Gabriel had been 8 years old when they first took the trip, he wanted all the boys to be 8 before they could go...but that was NOT what he had said! And so, to his credit, he took a deep breath and said calmly, 'Well, I guess you are right about that', and 6 years old became the 'official age' of the summer amusement park tradition.

Fast forwarding to this current summer with 4 water park 'traditions' now 'under the belt', we have a third grandson, Caleb, qualifying to join the summer fun! Last week, Papa -- accompanied by his lovely wife (err, that would be me) because keeping up with 3 kiddo's would definitely require the help of another adult -- was able to keep this particular family tradition going by giving his 3 oldest grandsons a super fun, super charged day together at DelGrosso Amusement Park in Pennsylvania.

It was definitely a memory-making day for them and for us!

OK....so what does the story have to do with the card above.....well, as Caleb was getting into the car to join us for his first big trip to the amusement park, he handed me a card....the one you see above. On the inside he wrote a sweet note expressing his thankfulness in being able to take part in this family tradition.

But, take a close look at the card front. You will not only see another fun stamped image he colored, but you will also see 2 hearts added to the top left side as embellishments.

As Caleb handed me the card, he explained 'why the hearts'.....'because the blue heart is my heart and the pink heart is your heart and our hearts are always together when I make my cards' . Continuing, he added, 'Nana, my heart will always think of you when I make my cards and I wanted to put our hearts stuck together on the card'.

Don't you know there were tears of joy now streaming down my face ! It was such a very precious moment and I was sooooooooooo proud of him....as you can see, he already puts so much thought into his cardmaking.....it actually humbled me as I thought to myself... 'I should put that much thoughtfulness into my own cardmaking'!

So, until next time,

Make time to create but remember to have fun and enjoy the experience!

Barbg(WV)

Hula Wishes

(click on the pictures to enlarge image for better viewing)

This card was made using the July Stamp of the Month, 'Aloha', from Paper Pretties (listed in my sidebar).

Each week, Danielle, one of the 'Prettie Girls', posts a challenge. Quite often it will be a sketch challenge, but once-in-a-while, it will be something different. The most recent challenge, PCW63, was to use the colors aqua and yellow along with a 'mystery' color....the mystery color being 'your' choice! Since my Aloha stamp had just arrived in the mail, I decided to ink her up and use her for this challenge. After stamping the image with Momento Tuxedo Black Ink onto Neena Solar Crest White Cardstock, I colored her with my Copic markers using the colors of the challenge along with a Bold Pink as my 'mystery' color. Well then... I had to decide on a 'lay out'...so I quickly browsed through some of the older challenges and decided to adapt the PCW56 (I think that was it, I'll have to check to be sure). My final layout is pretty close to the challenge with one exception....I added a bunch more flowers and opted not to use the sentiment on the card front.

The sentiment is computer generated and added to the inside of the card, along with a few more pieces of pattern paper (love, love, love my pattern papers), floral ribbon and pearls.

That is basically it....and I think the final result is fun and cheerful.

To learn more about Paper Pretties, click on the link in my side bar.

So until next time,

Make time to create but remember to have fun and enjoy the experience!

Barbg(WV)

'In the Midst of the Storm' -- Teach Me, O Lord

My goal for starting this blog was simply to have a place in which to share and record my artwork. At the same time, I hope to encourage beginners within the world of paper crafting to just 'go for it'...wanting this blog to be a place where each of us can come, at whatever level of 'expertise' we find ourselves, and encourage one another and learn from one another. It is a goal I believe is shared by the majority of the paper crafting blogs available today.

At-the-same-time, I am a Christian woman...a subject I do have plans to write more about and add to my profile for those who might be interested. For now though, I want you to know that from time-to-time I may decide to post about things other than my artwork ....specifically, things of a spiritual nature. It is my hope you will enjoy reading these posts, but more importantly, I hope you will find them spiritually encouraging.

I've decided to title this series of postings, 'Teach Me, O Lord'. Anytime you see that title included to the post, you will know I am sharing one of my personal lessons from the Lord....Lessons I feel God is wanting ME to learn....Lessons from which I hope you will find even a nugget of encouragement.

With that said, today is one of those days....and when I am done I will be back to share a card with you.

During the very early hours of this morning, the Lord decided He would bless our area with some much needed rain. Not long after the rain began pouring down, God also began sharing 'His version' of a fireworks show. Streaming down from the heavens above came luminous streaks of lightening and boisterously booming sounds of thunder. Immediately, He had MY attention! Still, thinking (or maybe hoping) the storm would pass swiftly, I wasn't necessarily afraid, however; I was definitely 'aware' and did find it a 'little' unnerving. Grabbing an extra pillow, I covered my head and closed my eyes in a feeble attempt to escape the growing fierceness of the storm. As the lightening continued streaking across the skies illuminating the room with an intense brightness and as the sounds of thunder roared profoundly all about, I became more and more afraid. The storm seemed to grow with a fierceness unlike any I've seen in quite awhile and as the storm progressed, so did my fear. I laid in bed praying the Lord would keep us safe throughout the storm. I'm not certain exactly how long the storm lasted, but in my 'mind' and in my fear, it seemed nearly an eternity. And then, just as suddenly as it came, the thunder began to quieten and the lightening began to cease. Glancing quickly at the bedside clock, I realized the alarm would sound in just one more hour. Once again, the room became filled with darkness and I could now hear the 'sweet sound of silence' as I peacefully fell back to sleep for that one last hour of the night. Shortly after waking, my immediate reaction was to look outside and view the damage I most certainly expected from such a fierce storm as we had that morning. Looking through the bedroom windows I was both amazed and relieved with what I observed. The area, surrounding not only our home but also the homes of our immediate neighbors, was completely clear, clean, and void of any debris. And while my long stemmed flowers, along with their leaves, seemed to hug the ground closely, not even the tiniest branch from the many huge trees surrounding our homes lay broken on the ground. The view from each window of our home gave the same result: all was calm, all was good, all was safe! Having demonstrated His awesome power throughout the rough and violent storm of this morning, God was also proving once again His tender and loving nature. Re-enforcing in my heart and mind the fact that I can trust Him to carry me through each and every storm I face in life. Scripture is filled with teachings concerning fear and trust. One of my favorite is found in Isaiah 41:10 -- 'Fear not, for I am with thee, be not dismayed I am thy God, I will strengthen thee, yea I will help thee, yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness'. I can trust God with my fears, my doubts, my confusion. I can trust Him with my heart, my soul, my life. I can trust Him in all situations and with all things of my life no matter how big or small....the question is....'WILL I'. While it isn't always easy, in fact it is sometimes downright HARD, I am learning more and more each day to trust my life into His care. I strive each day to place my whole life into the hands of my loving, patient, kind and forgiving, faithful and true, Heavenly Father. He is the Only One who is able to hold me and keep me safe within the palms of His hands. The same ONE who is Able to keep me safe in the midst of the storm of this morning, is the same ONE who is ABLE to keep me safe in the midst of all life's storms! And so, I am thankful for the storm of this morning. While the storm brought fear, my Savior brought calm. Indeed I was afraid, but I can find comfort as I remember the words of David -- "What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee" Psalm 56:3.

May you find encouragement,
Barbg(WV)

Altogether Now....

I'm so new at this blogging 'thing' and things seem to be a bit helter- skelter right now. I thought I'd try and put things all together in an effort to guide you to the appropriate post with specific information....hopefully I can accomplish that task, we'll see.


What's Up with that Blog Title?:

http://gotpms.blogspot.com/2009/07/simple-introduction-and-diving-in.html

My First PMS Sketch Challenge:

http://gotpms.blogspot.com/2009/07/sketchy-debut.html

PMSSC01 Prize Info:

http://gotpms.blogspot.com/2009/08/da-prize-da-prize-da-prize.html

Sample Cards for PMSSC01 Sketch:

http://gotpms.blogspot.com/2009/08/da-pmssc01-samples.html

OK...so if this works correctly, you should be able to click on the link for the topic in which you are interested, and have access to that specific information.

And, until next time,

Make time to create but remember to have fun and enjoy the experience!
Barbg(WV)

Da PMSSC01 Samples

Micki's 2 Card Samples Above

My Card Sample with 3 different views Below

Clicking on the pictures should enlarge image for better viewing

Sample cards using the PMSSC01 Sketch...A Sketch created by Micki Harper whose work can be seen by viewing her blog, 'Artful Xpressions Captured in Paint, Paper, and Photos', at the following link:

http://artfulxpressions.net/

And, until next time,

Make time to create but remember to have fun and enjoy the experience,

Barb g (WV)

For more of the D-Tails on the Sketch Challenge scroll down to the post, 'A Sketchy Debut'.

Edited to add: Details for my sample card -- Image and sentiment by Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps 'Inchin Along', Pattern Paper by DCWV 'Citrus Stack', Ink is Momento Tuxedo Black, Cardstock by PaperTrey Ink 'Select White', Image colored with Copics, Embellishments: Brads by Basic Grey 'Lemonade', Felt Flowers by SU, Crochet Flowers purchased from Etsy, Prima Flowers, Baubles from Stamping Bella, Ticket Corner Punch by SU, Stickles 'Frosted Lace'

Da Prize, Da Prize, Da Prize

As promised, a picture of 'da Prize being offered to one randomly chosen, valid participant in the PMS Sketch Challenge 01. Clicking on the pictures should enlarge the image for better viewing.

About the prize: 'Simply Sent' Stamp Kit by Stampin' Up!

Awhile back I was a Stampin' Up Demo and this was one of the Stamp Kits being offered at that time. Because I haven't been associated with Stampin' Up! for quite some time now, I don't know if this kit is currently being offered, but I can offer it as a Prize for my PMS Sketch Challenge. This stamp kit could be YOURs, IF your card is randomly selected at the conclusion of the PMSSC01 Challenge.

As you can see from the pictures, the kit contains:

1 Stamp Set (die cut) -- "Three Thoughts"

3 Stampin' Classic Ink Spots--1 each of the following colors: Purely Pomegranate, More Mustard,

Mellow Moss

6 Pre-scored Purely Pomegranate Cards

6 Pre-scored Mellow Moss Cards

3 pieces white cardstock (4 1/4 X 5 1/2)

12 white envelopes

4 small sheets of chipboard

1 set coordinating self-adhesive embellishment die-cut

96 glue dots

1 sheet SU dimensionals

1 Instruction Booklet with directions/pictures for making your choice of 3 different cards

What a Prize, huh.....told ya it was gonna be good!

But, you gotta' participate in order to have a chance at winning....so go take a look at the sketch and get busy creating!

Not sure what this post is all about....scroll down to the previous post, 'A Sketchy Debut', for all of the

D-Tails

Until later,

Make time to create but remember to have fun and enjoy the experience.

Barb g (WV)