I'm Back!

AUGHHHHHH!!! Okay- well after a LOVELY weekend of dealing with the stomache flu wreaking havok upon my entire family- I'm back! It started Thursday night with poor little three year old Bella. Then I had company over that overnoon and here she get's sick- yuck! Then Friday was okay for the most part- and then on Saturday it hit me- hard. I went and spent the weekend at my folks as my hubby was out of town- and I HATE being home alone- even with three kids. It was cool and I enjoy hanging out with my family- but then late Saturday morning I felt ill and it stayed. Sunday came and I had to find someone to cover for me in church as I was supposed to do Sunday School AND children' church. Sunday nite- I'm doing okay. I go home with my hubby and kids. Sunday nite my son gets sick (poor Gabe) and the kids had Monday off and Tuesday off (of course!). So Monday I was sick too, my husband stayed home and tended to me- and the kids. Monday nite my oldest gets sick. Thankfully no school on Tuesday. Now I'm feeling better and then DH was sick! Tuesday nite Gabe is sick again and stayed home from school on Wednesday- Well, then it's Thursday: we're all doing good and can eat solid food again. Then poor Lexie gets sick this morning and misses her last day of school for the week. *sigh* needless to say with being sick and not doing much I had a heck of a time Wednesday cleaning up and caring for my son. Took me three days to do laundry (INCLUDING all the um.... sicked on bedding...) and now I FINALLY have time to craft- sort of. So my mom's birthday was Saturday (the one where I was sick!) and I didn't have a chance to finish her gift- now I'm just procrastinating- she'll understand! PLUS I am excited, I finally have an order for something from someone I'm not friends with or related to! A complete stranger wanted to buy my stuff! It's due this weekend- so I have to go out and pick up some stuff- but it's a start. I guess I'm a bit glad that I didn't have more to do- what with the Nellis Family Five all being quarantined and all! So I did manage to do some of her gift. (this is all in love ma!) First she wanted cards. Then her cards weren't as good as other peoples (cuz I was learning and getting better!) then she gets 'good' cards - but they are all the same and she's handing out duplicate cards to people. WELL here- after checking out a really neat idea from 'inking idahoo' s blogspot- I made some mini magazine 'holders' and thought that would be cute to house cards. Other people had nice matching cards and envies and boxes- I decided that mine would be more for function- as mom's old cards are scattered on a bookshelf as she has no where to put them! So here are the two thank you cards for her set- two of each- and she has a variety (sort of!) and a box to keep them neat and get filled up when she runs out!
So yeah- I made this holder a while ago- cuz I thought it would be a cool idea. And I thought I'd be done all her cards by now. But in typical Brandie fashion- I waited til last minute- then something unexpected happend- and now she has to wait. I hope they'll be done before I start Christmas crafts! So I do make bulky cards- I do like embellishing them! This does fit four cards- and four envies- but as we see here- Brandie and her bulk are a tight squeeze!

So here's the first Thank You card. I can't tell you how much trouble this gave me! I loved the idea of a 'bevelled' type of edge using my wave blade and then adding flowers along it. I got that idea from SCS gallery. And I loved stamping my flourish stamps with pink and embossing in typical Brandie fashion with 1/2 and 1/2 glitter/embossing powder mix. Then I was lost. My PP didn't work quite right. I had NO idea how to do a sentiment. I was lost- and pouting. I had a great base- but nothing to add to it. After a while, and Godly inspiration- cuz y'know, He DOES help if you ask!- I got this- with the circle tag I cut out and stamped a circle cut out of PP and then muted it by putting vellum over it, but I punched two daisies out of it using my small Marvy daisy punch. Then I did the strips and I think it came together nicely- no more pouting! Now I had to come up with another one- lest mom have four of the same and no 'variety'!




So here is the other card. Again- I got the idea from SCS (I love that site!) They had a card shaped like this with embossing the front base and using a border punch for the bottom edge. I loved it! I had trouble with the sentiment on this one too- another doozy. Then I figured that turning it so my 'Thank You' can fit gave it a nice dimmession. THEN I stamped the whole diamond with my purple flourishes- so I re-did them and only stamped the top and bottom- so the sentiment can be seen better. It still looked naked, so I had some new stickles- didn't know how to use them- so I added the dots along the edge. Finished with the diamond rhinestones in the corners and VIOLA another set of thank you cards done! Now... only 12 more to finish the set. Man, if I had this much trouble with these two- what am I gonna do with 12 more? LOL- I have some ideas- so just stay tuned- and hopefully I'll finish mom's b-day gift in time enough to start on a gift for NEXT years birthday LOL!