Looking for good news in life

I'm trying to find some good news along with all the sad news I've received recently.  This morning, I found my little cactus on the patio producing a lovely flower, larger than the plant itself.

I have 4 of these cacti in a pot on my patio.  They all have buds and love this hot summer sun.  They bloom during the night.  In the 2nd photo, you can see the small insect pollinating the flower.  Once, pollinated, the flower begins to close.  It's completely closed before noon.

I've made a couple of cards this week to send to family members with serious problems.

The dog in the bag is an unmounted stamp I apparently bought in a grab bag years ago  I've never used it before.  I didn't do a great job of stamping on this card, but it conveys the message.  The sentiment stamp is from Verses.  I'll have to try these stamps again when I'm not in such a hurry.

OWH Finishing Strong Bloghop

To go to beginning of bloghop, click HERE.

Operation Write Home, a charity that has supported heroes with handmade cards since 2007, will be closing later this year. All cards need to be sent in by August 1st, so I’m helping to get the word out!

I first learned about OWH during the Memorial Day Bloghop in 2009.  It was then called Cards for Heroes.  I have been supporting the group with my cards and donations for 5-6 years.  I've been winding down and now the group will also complete their mission.  I have learned a lot from being a part of this group.  To Finish Strong, we are holding a bloghop to spread the word and give more support to our deployed heroes.

I used this sketch to design my card.

 

Love cards are very popular for our heroes to send to loved ones back home.  I used a Darice embossing folder to create the heart background, patting Brilliance Rocket Red ink over the embossed hearts.  I cut the embossed background to obtain the sketch design.  The hearts are cut with Spellbinders dies and the love is cut with a Memory Box die (actually 2 layers glued together for stability).

If you are a cardmaker, please be sure to mail your cards so they will arrive by August 1.  It's still important to follow the guidelines found HERE.

You may go HERE to see the rest of the bloghop entries.

Inspired by nature

Enjoying my hummingbirds outside inspired me to use one of my hummingbird stamps to make a birthday card.  This is for another family member who loves these little birds.

I stamped this unmounted (unidentified) stamp onto watercolor paper.  I colored it with a combination of watercolor pencils and Twinkling H2Os.  You can't see the shimmer, but it shows in real life.  I cut out the watercolored image with a stitched rectangle die from Simon Says Stamp, leaving wing and tail to hang over the edge.  I used more of the dies to cut the other layers.  I like these dies because they leave a nice faux stitched edge on both sides of the cut line.  The outer border is just a narrow strip glued onto base card.

The sentiment is a gold sticker.  I added a tiny gem for center of flowers.

Hummingbird at feeder

Yesterday, a friend was visiting with her dog.  I have a sliding glass door with a doggie door in my kitchen that connects to the patio.  The dogs run in and out at will.  I have a hummingbird feeder hanging from the patio roof.

A little guy that looked like this one flew into my glass door and was lying on the patio near the doggie door.  My friend held the dogs back while I went and tried to pick up the little hummingbird.  He tried to fly, but couldn't gain altitude.  I picked him up and put him in one of my tall cypress trees.  He stayed there quite a while.  I decided to take my camera outside to check on him.  He saw me and flew into my neighbor's mimosa tree.  I can't tell these little guys apart, but I took these photos today and hope he's one of them.

They do also perch on the rail, but this is the only photo I've caught showing that.

I call this bird 'he' because the females have a green head, instead of this dark head.  I have a lot of them eating from this new feeder and the flowering shrubs in my yard.  I also have an oriole feeder for the bigger birds.

PS:  Later in the day, I managed a photo of the female.

Belated birthday

I got lost in personal life again and missed a family birthday.  I pulled out one of my previously made backgrounds and quickly put this card together.  The belated message is inside the card.

I must get back to making some cards for my stash to avoid being late for birthdays.

I'm enjoying the warmer weather.  We've had many days in the upper 90s and go over 100° occasionally.  We've also had a lot of wind, but the shrubs and the birds and bees are happy.

 

 

 

Did you notice the bird that landed on the light as I was taking photos of the pink oleander in the first photo?  The hummingbirds love those red oleanders and the jasmine smells great.

Hang in there!

I made another card for a friend who's going through some difficult times.  This has been a favorite phrase in the last few years.  I cut out the layers with dies from a set by Simon Says Stamp called Stitched Rectangles.  I colored the mice with Prismacolor pencils and the dragonfly with Twinkling H2Os.  I'm a little out of practice (and lines) with the H2Os.  In real life, the wings look like a dragonfly's wings, but do not photograph well.  The inside says "Today is tomorrow's yesterday."

Wooden punch tool

There was discussion on a group board that I follow about the difficulty some of us have with punches.  As we get older and we have weaker hands, we have problems pushing hard enough to punch through cardstock.  Many years ago I purchased a wooden helper for this problem.  I think a nice man made these to help us.  He probably got tired of helping his wife with the punches.  I don't know who he was, but this is a photo of this tool.

There is a wooden peg that can be moved to several holes to adjust for different sizes of punches.  I was asked who made it.  All I know is that there is a name on the end of the tool, but I can't read the whole name, so I took a photo of it.

These photos may help others to identify the maker of this tool or help someone else recreate it.

Round card

I have some really cute large stamps that don't fit easily on my usual A2 size card.  I decided to make a round card with this one.  The brown background isn't part of the card.  I used a 5 1/2" circle die to cut the base card from folded cardstock.  The flat area on the left is the fold.  I used the House Mouse image on watercolor paper, then colored it with  Distress inks.    I used Glossy Accents to cover the jar of jelly beans.

I made this card for a friend who lost her husband a month ago and has lots of problems right night.  She needs encouragement to get through this difficult period of her life.

Farewell to friends

Last month was a difficult one, losing 2 good friends.  I have many memories, but will miss them.

I made this card on watercolor paper, stamping with Memories ink, then watercoloring the background with Distress inks and water.

Bald Eaglet hatches

After far too much sad news recently, I'm delighted to share a screen capture of a baby bald eagle.

 

This was taken from the Decorah Eagle cam this morning.  This is Dad proudly showing off the first hatchling of the year D21.  You can watch the camera on UStream at this LINK.  There is a lot of activity coming with 2 more eggs to hatch and then raising these eaglets until they learn to fly in a few months.