Since I gave recognition to my sons wonderful wood burning on my Christmas present bookshelf I also thought I would give recognition to the present he made for his dad. It is of Delicate Arch in Arches National Park outside of Moab, UT. This is a spot we have vacationed in three times now, so I guess you could call it a family favorite. On our first trip out there in 1995 several family members walked out to the Arch after dark during a full moon. This wood burned picture depicts that view.

Here are two of my recent non card stamping projects. They are both easy to do and fun. They make great gift items and I will probably make some to sell at our quilt show boutique and other craft events.

The "Notes" and "To Do" boards are actually metal picture holders that I found at Target. They were very inexpensive, but also very plain. I decoupaged card stock and designer paper onto the metal. Then stamped on the card stock, places a strip of ribbon over the seam and then decoupaged over it all. The flowers on the "To Do" holder are real dried flowers. I decoupaged over them as well. The magnets on the boards are shown close up in the first picture. They are glass discs that are flat on one side and rounded on the other. These I purchased at a $ store. I stamped a design on the flat end using stazon ink. Then painted them using metalic acrylic paints. You could also use pearl-ex mixed in lumiere. Finally I coated over the whole back side of the disc with a white acrylic paint and attached a magnetic disc. Voila, another nice little gift item.

A birthday card for a welcome change!

Finally, a card other than a sympathy card! Made this for and mailed to my brother for his birthday. I find myself using the SU watercolor paper a lot! I love it and with the stamped images and either watercolor crayons or pencils it almost looks as it I can really draw and paint. Ha! Fooled you! Now artistic talent of that sort here.

More sympathy cards

Yet again more sympathy cards. It seems that these are the only type of card that I have made this year. These were made for the family of my husband's Aunt. That's three family members to die this year and one family friend. I think it is now time to move on to joyful family events, right? I guess all these funerals also are hard because they are a sign of my aging. Not many like to face that prospect even though we all know intellectually that it is inevitable unless you are the one sympathy cards are being made for. When you look at it that way I guess getting older is not so bad after all.

On a Happier Note

This is a very special Christmas present made for me by my son. It is a bookcase being used by me to hold DVD's in our family room. He made it extra special by wood burning quilt blocks along each side. And I didn't even know he knew how to do wood burning. Such talent! Do I sound like a bragging mom? Oh well to bad cause that's exactly what I am! Thanks Nate! Now the whole world can see your talent if they want too! Love ya!

By the way the blocks he chose were designed by Carol Doak and are from her book 40 Bights & Bold Paper Pieced blocks. A favorite book of mine. Now maybe I should make a quilt to go with the bookshelf.

Sympathy Cards

Well I did finally get back to making some cards. Unfortunately they are all sympathy cards for family members. I just sat down with my sympathy stamps and a couple of my favorite stamp sets and began working. I wanted them each to be different in case the various family members should happen to see each others. Once again though it was a sad process it gave me time to reflect over the time I spent with my Aunt (she is the one who died) so that was a good thing.