Martina McBride's "I'm Gonna Love You Through It"

This is one of her most powerful songs to date.
I'm Gonna Love You Through It

Goes along with my post from earlier today.

SU! Stamp Club with Joann - HOPE Card

I can't take credit for the design of this card, my SU! demonstrator, Joann, did that. She has a Stamp Club Weekend each month and opens her home to a group of us on Saturday and Sunday (different people, different days, but you are free to sign up for either day). I am a "switcher" - I go to whichever day works best for me, but many of the ladies go only to the Saturday class or only to the Sunday one --- the card to be made is the same on both days.

August is a special month because it is the Annual SALE! Joann sells her left-over paper, retired stamp sets, ribbon she doesn't use often, etc at a reduced price and we get to gobble it all up! She also offers us the chance too pour over her sample cards and choose those that we would like for our sample card collections! It is almost too good for words!!! OK it IS too good for words!!!!

So this was Stamp Club weekend (it is the second weekend of each month) - and she used the special Breast Cancer Awareness stamp set to make the design of the card. It is a fabulous pink and grey card with a glittered butterfly. The card is, as are all cards, so much more spectacular in person than on the internet.

My sister's best friend is currently fighting - very hard - a battle with breast cancer, so I am sending my card to her. Here is the card:

I really like this card because it used so many different techniques. The glittery butterfly, was stamped with Versamark onto a transparency then SU!'s heat & stick was applied, heated and red glitter was applied, then heated again to make it stick. Sorry, that transparency, should be called, in SU! language, a "window sheet."

The "H" hope stamp and the encouraging/empowering words (courage hope believe unity survivor caring together love kindness support strength blessed thank you) are embossed using craft ink and clear embossing powder. And the great doily image in the corner is....wait of it... the "Hello, Doily" stamp :) from SU! which we stamped in Sahara sand onto the Blushing Bride paper.

OK usually I do not give out so much info about how I make a card - but since Joann told me how to do it, I thought I might pass this info on to you. And, if you ever want to know how I have done something, please feel free to ask :)

btw, after all that, my card to Corinne for tomorrow seems like a child's work. :(

Nickelodeon's "iCarly" Stigmatizes Mental Illness | Child & Adolescent Bipolar Foundation

Nickelodeon's "iCarly" Stigmatizes Mental Illness --- Child & Adolescent Bipolar Foundation
Nickelodeon's "iCarly" Stigmatizes Mental Illness
written by Susan Resko on Thursday, August 11, 2011 at 5:36pm
The August 13, 2011 Nickelodeon ("Nick") episode of the popular adolescent show, iCarly, is entitled "I Lost My Mind". The character Sam kisses a boy she hates, so she assumes she has "lost her mind" and checks herself into a "mental hospital." While there, she "finger-paints." Her friends try to "break her out." The promo suggests their plan is "crazy" and "insane."
This characterization is beyond the pale, and stigmatizes adolescent psychiatric hospitalization. Such callous rendering would never be given to treatments for other life threatening illnesses such as cancer or AIDS.
I have urged Nick to pull the episode, AND do an episode that shows the kids learning that psychiatric hospitalization is no laughing matter. Words and phrases like, “I lost my mind,” or “mental hospital” are not cool. This rendering will stigmatize kids seeking needed care, causing greater suffering and potentially even deaths. Nick's audience is the generation that can end stigma, if helped to understand! The very responsible 90210 episodes on bipolar are a great example of what can be done.
Jokes about psychiatric hospitalization went the way of calling a child with Down Syndrome the “R word.” They are offensive and tactless. In fact, suicide is the third leading cause of death among teens and young adults. A 2010 SAMHSA study found nearly 1 in 10 youths between the ages of 12 and 17 experienced major depression in a year—nearly 2 million youths. Fewer than 4 in 10 of these youths received treatment. These kids are Nick's and iCarly's audience. Does Nick think this is funny?
Our 2009 nationwide survey shows that over 60% of the children of respondents have been hospitalized at least once and nearly 40% have had multiple hospitalizations. CABF represents over 37,000 families and receives 600,000 visits to our website each year. These families find "the joke" no laughing matter.
If you find this characterization offensive, I urge you to contact the producers at Nickelodeon and share your thoughts. The only way we end this type of objectionable programming for our children is to voice our opinions (and click away from Nick’s iCarly.)
Send your complaints to Viacom, the parent company of Nick.

Kindness Cards

I do not think I shared with you my Kindness cards. these are the cards I sent to the gracious man who fixed my A/C and the news reporter who made it all happen. Now that I think about it --- did I share the story???

Hang on, while I go look at my posts..... (you hanging on, while I look......even though in cyber space, it does not take waiting time......) OK yes, I did tell you about it on July 31st.

But here are the cards I sent (they were a little different from each other, but not too much, you will get the idea from this one, which was Tom's the Amazing A/C guy). This is the Easel set-up, but the envelope closed:

And this is with the envelope open and the card displayed on top of the Easel:

And, finally, this is the saying on the outside of the card (which was tucked in the envelope on the Easel) -- I know a little confusing and involved, but it make for a great presentation.

Well that is that card I really wanted to share with you - I hope you enjoyed it :)
Please leave a comment of you can :)

Exploding Purse - Paper Folding Experience --- a teaser

I saw this really cool Purse that opens sort of like an exploding box, so I call it an "Exploding Purse." I have been working on English-language directions (yep, I saw it on a Dutch website), and I have the main directions ready, but not all the pictures, so I am still holding off. Look for it soon. Just a little tease :)

Monday's Card to My Cousin

Yep, it is that time of the week!

Card going out to Corinne, who is now recovering from both neck and arm surgery!

So, the card --- which was pretty simple this week, but I liked it because I was in a cheery mood and wanted to use COLOR! Here it is:

"Th-th-th-that's all folks!" :)

My backyard

So another week begins.

I spent a lot of the weekend in the backyard with my mom, working onm getting weeds out and generally keeping up with the mess I call a yard. It isn't much to write home about. I have a few fruit trees - although nothing produced this year! I have an apricot tree, a lemon tree and two peach trees (one for eating ; one for pies). Then there are several very OLD, very not healthy rose bushes and a LOT of random little rocks, weeds and sporadic landscaping. Plus, of course, numerous weeds that grow despite my use of PREEN and Round UP.

Oh, and I have 2 tomato plants - my pride and joy, the actual things that I have planted and that I care for back there!

We tried to get ahead once again, but I have finally made the decision (after living here for 2 1/2 years) to put in grass. It means doing a lot of back-breaking work to get the backyard ready to accept grass seed, but I think the grass will be easier to maintain than the rock/dirt/weed mixture I have now. So I guess I am going to try to move the rocks around, get the dirt really soaked and buy some grass seed.

My housemate has offered to take care of the lawn in the short term (she wants lawn for her little dog), so I will leave it to her as long as she comes through for me, and maybe I can get the backyard looking good in time for the fall to take over!

I guess my first stem will be to buy a new hose and splitter so I can water it while keeping my tomato set-up in place....hmm hadn't thought of that before. I wonder if you can buy hoses in 10' lengths? That is about all I need for the tomato plant project...

Gazpacho!!!

My favorite summertime meal is a cool bowl of gazpacho soup.

Gazpacho is a tomato-based vegetable soup that is served cold. It can be a very time-consuming and labor-intensive meal to make. Yet, I have come up with an easy non-V8 based way to go about it. While I am not knocking the V8 versions, they are incredibly high in sodium and have an aftertaste that I just do not like.

So here is my version (which relies on having a Raley's grocery store nearby):
--24 oz NOB HILL brand FARMERS MARKET Vegetable Soup (in the fresh deli section)
--1 lb (16 oz) RALEY'S Pico de Gallo (a mixture of tomato, yellow onion, jalapeno, & cilantro) (found in the produce section)
--1 lb "Shrimp Meat Cooked Salad Size - previously frozen" (usually about $6.99/lb) -> the small little guys (in the fresh fish counter)
--Avocado to garnish (I use about 1/3 per serving)

Mix it all (well, not the avocado) and serve with the avocado on top. It makes about 4 good sized portions, maybe 6 to 8 skimpy ones :)

The shrimp makes it -- usually gazpacho does not have shrimp. Of course, the shrimp also makes a vegetarian, even vegan dish, a meat-eater dish. But, oh well, I like my shrimp!

ENJOY :)

Butterfly Easel Card to Corinne

Well I am cool and collected - still very embarrassed and shamed -- I guess I know what I will be dealing with in therapy on Tuesday :)

Here is Thursday's card:

I have started my tiny little side business on eBay again - each day I make about $2, a very small amount but it adds up so that I can buy cut files from an amazing designer in England over the internet or from other websites that I like and that use PayPal for payment. I very slowly build up my PayPal account and then I can spend it on my SVG cut files. :)

My volunteer work has been growing GrOwInG GRoWInG GROwING GROWING and is now threatening to sort of take over. I was "just" a volunteer, then I started to get involved with fundraising AND volunteering. And NOW I am getting involved with Board stuff, plus publicity plus fundraising and a little "just" volunteering. I am committed to the cause - but I am realizing I need to watch myself a little bit to avoid having it get to big.

Experience Is What You Get When You Didn't Get What You Wanted

That is the sentiment on the card I sent to my cousin on Tuesday, July 26th.

Which, of course, was the day BEFORE I started the whole HVAC issue. Actually I sent it the day the HVAC issue started. Let me start again.

I made and sent the card early Tuesday. I think I made the card a couple of years ago....yep, it was an older card that resurfaced. I actually created it back in the mid-2000's, maybe circa 2006? Back when I was in Reno, NV and struggling through my mental illness on an hour by hour basis (I think of my struggles now as on a day by day basis, an improvement).

So the card was an older one, but one that I really liked. And I chose it for Corinne now, because she was having to go under the knife again - and I was hoping all was going to go well for her, even as things were obviously not going her way.

So, I sent the card at 10:30 in the morning.

At 11am or so, I was finally able to reach a real, live person at the CAA - Community Action Agency here in Butte County that was my hope to get my air conditioner/heater unit fixed/replaced for free. I was put on the list - but learned I was at the bottom of the list - like #500 and it would be a year, at least! before my number was called. I was stunned.

And, my first thought was - WOW! There are 500 families ahead of me that are struggling in this heat and will struggle in the cold of the winter without heat - how are they going to do that? It made me think that I needed to take action. I did not know what I could do but I felt like I should try to do something.

Around 3pm I call the CAA back and asked them where there funding came from; what could I do to increase their funding; what would help them; would publicity of the situation help; was there anything I could do? I was told their funding was federal - really we needed a budget, we needed more funding for low-income programs, etc.

I realized that maybe if the news channel could do a story, maybe it would help someone somewhere or at least raise awareness. So I went to the local NBC affiliate's website (they also happen to be the CBS and CW affiliate by association) and sent off a message. I explained the long list, the purpose and great things the CAA did, that I was NOT a good poster child, but that there was definitely a good family out there somewhere struggling in the heat, with little kids, etc that they could do a story on.

The next morning, on Wednesday, I got a call from a reporter, Derek Demo, and he said that he was on his way to the CAA to do an interview about the story and would it be possible to come talk to me? I said no, that he needed to talk to a desperate family, someone in a worse situation; a family with kids, etc. About an hour later, he called back and said that due to confidentiality laws, the CAA couldn't give out information and names of people on the list - that to do the story, he needed to interview me. So I said yes, come over and i would talk to him.

But again - the story was other people - not me, not my situation. I pulled my roommate into the interview just to keep the focus off me. I was so embarrassed and shamed to even have the focus on myself.

So a story ran on Wednesday's news - at 5:30, at 11pm and then again on the morning news program at 6am. THEN - at 9am on Thursday, Derek calls again and tells me that a local business --- Alternative Heating and Air --- has offered to repair my HVAC unit!

Ok, this is GREAT! annd this is HORRIBLE! I did not do this to get my problem solved. I did not expect to gain from the situation. I wanted to help others; I wanted a desperate family to be helped, not myself. But now I was going to have my system fixed and I was going to benefit. Again, so much shame!

Derek came back - Tom from Alternative Heating and Air came over and worked on my unit for a couple of hours and FIXED IT! Yea!!!! Another story was filed and I was interviewed again, plus I filmed a promo - OMG! I am going to be on TV all over the place. :(

So, the long and short of it was, I went on TV, said I was low-income and needed help, got the help and thanked the news for helping me. Do I feel like scum or what??

So here is the card I sent Corinne:

Residents Need Help Beating Summer Heat

This is me! Interviewed about my HVAC issues and trying to get them fixed. :(

Residents Need Help Beating Summer Heat

Doni's Birthday Card

My friend, and the outgoing newsletter editor for the social group for which I am treasurer, Doni, is having a birthday! Her celebration takes place on Thursday so I am sending her card tomorrow (Monday) to ensure it gets there on time. Sometimes the mail in our town goes down to Sacramento to get sorted and then back up here to be delivered and sometimes it is sorted in out local post office. When it goes to Sac, it can take 3 to 4 days for a letter to get across town, otherwise it might only take a day --- you never know. So, just to be safe, I always try to mail things early.

The card I am sending didn't really photograph well --- my favorite camera set-up is not available right now - it is down at my mom's house waiting for us to do some eBay work (although we have been planning that project for a couple of months now and have not made any progress on it) --- so everything is a bit ad hoc and I am not happy with the quality. I apologize. But it is the best I have and here it is:

I like to think of birthdays as the beginning a new 365-day trip around the sun. And, for all of us this year, it is a leisurely 366-day trip (yep, 2012 is a leap-year). I need to make up a card for that....hmmmm ideas come flooding through......

My Monday card to Corinne

Yes it is that time again - sending a card to Corinne. She is doing quite well and has sent me an email. She is able to get out and is actually driving down to get her mail (she has a long driveway) each day - the highlight of each day, she wrote!

I made a special card for Monday; This is my new "vellum envelope easel card" - style card. As it looks with the card inside the vellum envelope and the easel up:

As it looks with the card out of the envelope and displayed on the easel:

My only fear is that the recipient not understand how to display and work the easel portion of these cards. So I put in instructions, but I am not sure how clear they are. :)

Sad News

My dear friend Pam has lost her husband to colon cancer.

While his death is not unexpected, it is still quite a shock and very sad, as is any death.
The card I made for her from me is here:

And, I made a card for my mom and I to give to her also. Actually this may become a card from our entire Mexican Train group. That card is here:

Please send any thoughts or prayers her way.

Thursday - Good Medical News

OK - It is not a Brain tumor or MS. phew. ok we can calm down and take a deep breath. I can relax and feel easy again. The mean, ugly and scary things are not going to happen to me.

Probably it is just the severe anemia or a drug to drug interaction. My FNP has changed some of my pain meds and is talking to my psychiatrist about changing one of my psych meds (seroquel) - maybe not change it but just get rid of it - YES! - in order that we will get rid of my symptoms.

This is such good news!

Obligatory card to Corinne:

When It Rains It Pours

Well if another thing goes wrong then I will really feel cursed.

My mom always said things come in 3s-
----My Heater/AC went out - $10K to replace :(

----Major plumbing problem my septic tank needs to be pumped - who knows at what cost???

----unknown Neurological problem - tests done, results may come on Wednesday


We can add in the petite 3:
--Roommate may move out
--Allergic reaction to new med -- very strong allergic reaction
--no money, the situation worsens


And the good news..............hmmm the good news?
I will have to work on finding that.

I can report that my cousin is doing well. That is good news. The latest card I have made and am sending to her on Monday:

"Gereedschapskist"

These instructions, which are in Dutch, are for a very cool looking toolbox - gereedschapskist - which was featured in a Dutch card magazine this month, ***Hobbyzine***. The designer's website,***Ellis in Scrapland*** , shows her toolbox, which is really cute.

I will share my toolbox and the American instructions once I have it all worked out.

The Dutch instructions for the box are as follows:

1. Snijd en maak 1 grote en 2 kleine bakjes volgens patroon. Beplak bij het grootste bakje alleen de bodem met papier en plak de flapjes van de steuntjes binnenin het bakje vast.

2. Beplak de kleine bakjes aan de binnenkant met papier

3. Het grootste bakje: meet aan de korte kanten de volgende maten af: 9 mm van de onderkant en 8 mm van de zijkant, zet op alle 4 hoeken een potloodpuntje en pons gaatjes. Pons ook gaatjes op 1 cm van de bovenkant, in het midden van de korte kanten.

4. Snijd voor het hengsel een strookje zilverkleurig karton van 27, 1 x 1 cm en maak vouwen op 7 cm van de uiteinden. Pons gaatjes in de uiteinden, op 1 cm van de kant. Zet het hengsel met splitpennetjes vast aan het grootste bakje.

5. Pons gaatjes in het midden van de korte kanten van de kleine bakes en in een bakje een gaatje in een lange kant op 1 cm van de rechter zijkant (bedels).

6. Snijd van het zilverkleurige karton 4 stookjes van 8 x 1 cm en vouw en plak ze dubble. Pons in elk strookje een gaatje in een uiteinde op ongeveer 0,5 cm van de kant. Zet de strookjes met splitpennetjes vast aan het grootste bakje, zet een klein bakje aan de strookjes.

7. Stempel het beertje met de gereedsschapskist, kleur het en snijd het afdrukje tot een rondje van 6 cm. Stans een papieren en een kartonnen Nestabilities, net iets groter dan het afdrukje. Plak ze op elkaar en plak het afdrukje erop.

8. Snijd 2 stukken blauw karton van 13,2 x 5,5 cm en maak in allebei een vouw op 1,5 cm van de lange kant. Pons in het midden van de lange kant. Pons in het midden van de andere kant 2 gaatjes (in een deel), leg beide deksels los op de gereedschapskist en teken de gaatjes op het andere deel af. Pons de gaatjes en plak beide delen aan de gereedschapskist.

9. Hang de bedels ieder aan een klein stukje lint, leg de uiteinden op elkaar en prik er met de punt van een schaartje een gaatje in, steek een splitpen door het gaatje in het lint en door het gaatje in het kleine bakje van de kist.

The DASH

I heard a powerful story at the memorial service of an acquaintance in late April. The story is called "The Dash" and you have probably heard it. I am pasting it below in case you haven't read it yet --- it seems hard to find on the web and I think it is important enough to be able to find easily.

I decided to send it to my cousin who is recuperating from neck surgery - I am sending her frequent cards and trying to come up with new things to send is a little difficult. I do not want to be too cheery, too morose, too anything. She isn't going to "get well soon" - she has a long recovery. She doesn't need - or probably want - "sympathy" and I am tired of saying "thinking of you" so I am now trying to come up with other card ideas to send in between those semi-generic ones. This is one of those "other" cards.

I really like flourishes and rhinestones; this card has both :) The design is simple and a little understated, but it came together better than I hoped it would. Inside I printed the story; here is the card:

And the text of "The Dash" is:

There was a man who stood to speak at the funeral of a friend. He read the dates on her tombstone from the beginning…to the end.

He noted first came the date of her birth and spoke the following date with tears, but he said what mattered most of all was the dash between those years.

For that dash stands for all the time that she spent alive on earth… and only those who loved her know what that little line is worth.

It matters not, how much we own; the cars….the house…the cash.

What matters is how we live and love and how we spend our dash.

So think about this long and hard…are there things you’d like to change? For you never know how much time is left that can still be re-arranged.

If we would just slow down enough to consider what’s true and real and always try to understand the way that other’s feel. We’d be much less quick to anger and show appreciation more and love the people in our lives like we’ve never loved before.

So, when your eulogy’s being read and your life is being rehashed…would you be proud of the things they say about how you spent your dash?

Quite a bit to think about. I now think about my "dash" often - am I living a life that is worth speaking of? Thinking of? Mentioning? I am not sure I am. I struggle with issues of hopelessness and worthlessness on a daily basis and have to really work at not being suicidal most mornings, so do I think my dash has meaning? No, I do not. I think maybe my dash is too long; that I have over stayed my welcome on Earth.

Birthday Cards - Janet and Anita

Two of my friends, Janet and Anita, had birthdays in the last couple of weeks and I made cards for them.

For Janet's card, I used a cool technique that I first saw on Becca Feeken's Amazing Paper Grace blog (***Spirit of Christmas***). I really liked the look of the woven ribbon through the frame. I do not have any Spellbinders' Nestabilities, but I do have a Cricut Expression and am armed with Paint.Net, Inkscape, and SureCutsALot and a whole of time. So I can pretty much make anything I want to cut. And I did! I created the half round scalloped frame, and the oval scallop frame with oval frame to layer on top. I also use MS Word and Excel to do some of my designing - with the PrtSc button (Print Screen) and Paint.Net, I can get those images into the creation process as well. I will make a post about all I do to make anything I want to cut.

Anywho--- I made the cutfiles and was able to create this card:

For Anita's card I had seen this card on a blog by ***Colien*** from Brabant in the Netherlands. While I have now seen them all over on ***SplitCoastStampers***, at the time I was just seeking them out on the European blogs that I follow. And I was really impressed with the look of the cards. I made up some ***directions*** for how to make them. I am still not sure how the Google Docs system works, but I have uploaded the directions --- they are a pdf file and include a diagram of your cardstock with measurements and folding directions. Good Luck! Here is her card:

I decorated the center diamond with the scalloped border punch by Martha Stewart - although this is usually a place where I would have used the Cricut and cut files! I was pleasantly surprised that I could use and *actual* punch that I had purchased with good old cash!

Sympathy Cross Card

A friend of mine from one of the places where I volunteer lost her husband rather suddenly from cancer and so I came up with a sympathy card at the last minute. I used my Cricut Expression and adapted an SVG cross that I had stored on my computer to the circumstances.

Once again, I know I got the idea for the original cross from someone else's website yet I didn't record where (I know how horrible that it of me), and I had to re-design it for my card --- it wasn't fitting on my card correctly and had once set of "humps" missing, but it still is NOT my design. I do appreciate immensely all the people who share their files on the web and feel horrible that up until now I haven't kept better records of where I have gotten my files. :(

Here is the card I made using a yellow pearlescent base and pearlescent white for the layered crosses. I used pop-dots between the layers of each size cross. It went card base (yellow), then a pearlescent large cross, pop-dots, a pearlescent large cross, pop-dots, and a small pearlescent cross. Making 3 layers of paper above the cardstock and 2 sets of pop-dots, yes it was thick --- but I like it this way. You could achieve a nice look using just one layer of a large cross and a small cross also, forgoing the pop-dots. I know some people (my sister included) do not like the dimensional look of many current cards. My card looked like this:

It is VERY simple in the picture. At first, I did not want a lot of frills, but after I made it I realized that it needed a sympathy verse and some peel-offs. So I did dress it up, I just didn't get a picture taken before it was sent :(

I am sharing a ZIP archive that contains the jpg image of the card, the SVG file, and the scut2 file for a 5x7 card.

Sympathy Cross Zip File

If you have seen the original cross file on the web somewhere and can send me the link - or are the original creator - please contact me and I will give you the credit that is definitely yours!

Corinne's Birthday Cards

How sad am I?

Didn't I mention just the other day that it was Corinne's birthday? Didn't I have her birthday card sitting on the counter waiting to be mailed? But, did I get it in the mail? ummm, that would be a no. It remained on my counter until I saw it this morning. So I added one of my belated cards and am planning to take it to the post office this morning. Ahhh, the pleasures of a drug-induced brain fog!

Here is the birthday card I made for her (it is a 5" x 7"):

And here are the images (front and inside) of my belated card (which is the smaller 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" size):

Hopefully they will get to her rather quickly. :)

Easel box with simple card - for Joanne

Hoi allemaal! (Hi everyone!)

A friend of mine (Joanne) had asked me about making easel cards - (gemaakt kaarten easel) - and so I made an easel card box and simple card to show her as a how-to. It was really fun to design and make!

Here is the box:

I used the "recipe for friendship" quote:
RECIPE FOR HAPPINESS
I have a little recipe that isn't hard to make,
But you must always start as soon as you awake.
Take a great big mixing bowl and fill it with a smile
Mix half a cup of sunshine with good deeds to last a while.
Add a pinch of work and play,
a pinch of thoughtfulness and care.
But don't bake it in the oven,
just spread it around everywhere


The card was VERY simple and I used the BigShot "Top Note" die available from Stampin' Up because I knew she had it and I like how this die turns out when making the easel cards --- although it makes the smaller, 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" cards (I usually work in the 5" x 7" size):

A really nice quote/poem/saying - in Dutch

gisteren is verleden tijd
morgen is een mysterie
vandaag is 'n geschenk


which translates, according to Google translate to:

yesterday is history
tomorrow is a mystery
today's a gift

Linda's Friend Card

This is a new folded card that I learned (meaning I reverse engineered) from a website I found from somewhere in Europe, and not in English! I can't find the link right now and I feel horrible about that. From now on, I will be better about keeping track of where I get my ideas and techniques. I am calling it a "Double Sided Fancy Folded Card" just because that is how I think of it but I am sure it has a "real" name somewhere.

Anyway, I figured out how to do this card and was quite pleased with the results. The directions, with American measurements, are as follows (I have a Martha Stewart Scoring Board, which I highly recommend):

I HIGHLY recommend trying to make this card with scrap paper at first - and since it only needs a 12" by 6" piece, you really have 2 practice pieces (from a 12" x 12") to use before you try it with your "real" cardstock --- use them both!

* Start with a 12" x 6" piece of cardstock
* Score down the middle, lengthwise at 3"
* Score down the sides, vertically at 2 1/4" and 9 3/4"

OK, stay with me, it gets a little tricky and involved here.
* Mark the 4" and 8" points on the top and bottom of the cardstock
* on the center score line, measure in from the left 2 7/8" and make a mark (this is 5/8" PAST the vertical score line)
* again, on the center score line, measure in from the right 2 7/8" and make a mark (this is at 9 1/8" measured from the left edge of the paper) You should again have this point be marked to the inside of the vertical score line.
* SCORE from the points you just made on the center line to the outside 4" marks - there should be 4 (four) score lines made.

Here is how your paper should look:

Now you need to start folding the paper. The green lines are MOUNTAIN folds --- the paper pushes up towards you. The red lines are VALLEY folds --- the paper folds away from you. You can see the paper goes in some tricky ways. This makes the card fold in this really cool way but also give you, the folder-er, a little bit of a headache. Basically you want the center part to point upwards while the sides fold up and out with the part in between folding inward.

I hope these instructions are as clear as mud :) If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask. You can always email me at alittlefaithwithsomehope@gmail.com

~~~gemaakt door Stina

My cousin Corinne - Get Well Soon!

Hoi!

My cousin Corinne had neck surgery yesterday --- a rather scary situation --- and is now doing okay. However she is on complete bed rest and immobilized for quite some time. I think she is in a neck brace for 6 weeks and can't lift anything for 6 months! And this is a very active woman! She is an animal woman - owns a pet sitting business as well as having a full time job. She plucks hay bales around as if they weighed nothing and moves around barns and pastures and plays with dogs and so forth all day long. I cannot even imagine how difficult the next few weeks and months are going to be for her.

Plus, today is her birthday!

So I made a Get Well card for her - a card with a saying that I found on the web and reminded me of my uncle Glen - her step-father. The card says:
"Hope you feel something similar to the way you did previous to the way you're feeling now."

The card:

I plan to keep sending her cards throughout her recovery. So I need to come up with some new ideas :)