Paper Crafting As Of Late & A Thowback Scrapbooking Page

First off thanks so much for the notes that my Best Bloggin' Buddies left me last week!  It's so wonder knowing I have people who care and check up on me!  It means the WORLD to me!  Thank you! 

So...this week...I'm back bloggin'.  I have lots to share but I have to say between everything that has been going on and the horribly EXTRA cold winter we are having I really haven't wanted to do much!  Gabby - one of our cats has always been small - and has been losing weight lately so I have been trying to up her food intake and give her private food time away from Charlie - our other cat.  I think it might be working.  Fingers Crossed.


I was thinking about making this one big long post but I figured I would space it out.  I'm sure I will have more than one post for today but I will be schedule posting a few others as well.  I have been averaging about a card a week and have enjoyed it.  I'm baby stepping my way back to paper crafting.  I used this card for the February Challenge over at Chalk N Stock if you want to hop on over and check it out and maybe even participate during this month's challenge!  I've been getting into pattered papers more as well as papers that kind of 'clash' with each other.  I'm not really sure why I'm currently into this look but I am.

Here's another card I did a couple of weeks ago.  I really liked the red against the black and cream colors.  The center checkered part is actually a ribbon not paper.  But as you can see I used the opposites or 'clashing' look - or mismatched - even - in this card, too!

Since I have been working on re-organizing my craft room I have found all sorts of things I am now using again that haven't paid much attention to the last year or so.  It's been FUN.

I hope to post at least one project a week on my blog from now on!

Here's another card I made - it was actually the first of the 3 I am posting here.  I'm trying to use my scraps more than I did before - I have TONS.

In this card I use the same red paper as in the card above.  I used some paper scraps for the black and cream strips and the flower you see is a hand crocheted flower one of my crafting buddies sent me a few years ago.  They are lovely!  In the center of the flower is a decorative brad I've had laying around for a while as well.

Overall...I'm fairly pleased with these cards!  They are a bit of a departure from what I was doing with cards prior to my crafting hiatus.  I'm looking forward to other projects as well!  I still MUST start in with those tins I was telling you about a while back, too!

Another now for a Throwback Scrapbooking Page.  I did this YEARS ago.  The reason I am posting it now is as a remembrance.  You see...the girl in the lower right hand corner photo was a good friend of mine (Actually one of two of my BEST Friends) from college who afterwards was a teacher at a charter school.  In 2008 her finance shot her and then himself.  It was a complete shock - of course.  It happened Super Bowl Sunday...I'll never forget that.  Everyone was notified and the word started spreading that following Monday.  I haven't looked at Super Bowl Sunday the same way since.  I probably never will.  Yesterday I spent a lot of time thinking about her.  I think of her often but yesterday I went thru photos and videos and had a few moments of silence.  Also pictured in this photo is my other friend Sarah and I in the other pictures.  The photos were taken in 1998 when we were in college and at an IVCF Retreat in Angola, NY.  The 3 of us were VERY active in IVCF during college and shortly after, even.

The Reason I've Been 'Few & Far Between"

The main reason I have been 'few and far between with my posts lately is because last week our company and our community lost someone very special.  He lost his battle with cancer after a dozen years or more.  He was a fighter, that is for sure!  He's been with the company I work for since 1975-1976.  He was very active in the community and the boards and organization such as Salvation Army, Chamber, Kiwanis, etc.  He was a huge part of his church...a Sunday School Teacher, Youth Mentor, and much more!  He was married for 9 years to his darling of a wife.  He has two grown sons, two grown stepdaughters, and 3 grandchildren.  He was like a father to my husband.  He was a friend.  He was extremely social, funny, witty, helpful, brave, and compassionate.  Work was very strange last week.  I'm glad he's at peace but still very sad he's not around.  The service was beautiful.  The poem above is "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost.  I remember back to The Outsiders from the 80s as it was recited but it's always stuck with me throughout the years as one of my favorite Robert Frost Poems, too!