Snail Mail

I love the technology we have available today but I also like doing some things the way we used to. Like sending cards and writing letters. It seems that this is becoming a dying art or at least seldom used. I for one enjoy getting mail....real mail....in my mailbox....not my inbox 😉

Now days you hear that type mail referred to as "snail mail." I recently purchased a sentiment stamp set from Unity called "Happy Snail Mail." I love Unity's sentiment kits as they come with several sentiments with images that can be used with other stamp sets. Happy Snail Mail comes with 15 sentiments!

Here are a few cards I made recently with this stamp set. This one I made for someone who is recovering from surgery.

I colored this image with Copic Markers. I did put glossy accents on the yellow dots of the mushroom.

This card I made for a young man that used to attend our church. His parents live in the Ukraine. He lived with the pastor of my church and his wife while he attended high school at our private Christian School. After graduation ,he went to California to attend Bethel's School of Supernatural Ministry. He is now working this summer at a youth camp on a ranch. He mentioned in a post one day on Facebook that he was jealous that his co-workers were getting mail and he wasn't getting any. I made a comment I would write to him if he would give me an address. He did and I made this card to send to him with a letter on the inside. I had no expectations that he would write back but he did! A page and a half in his own handwriting! He was thrilled to get my "snail mail" and said it was the best kind...with a handrawn smiley face emoji 😍.I used pearl pens and liquid pearls to add dimension on the snail and mushroom. The rest I colored the Copic Markers.

This is a card I made for a belated birthday. I colored it with Copic Markers.

Thanks for taking a look.

Have a good one!

Football Camp July 24, 2017

Vanessa and Keannon are planning to let Kashton play flag football this fall. Vanessa learned about football camp and that they were opening it to younger kids so she signed him up.

The first night of camp Vanessa asked me to take him as neither she or Keannon could. He is wearing a black and gray shirt with red shorts next to the man with a red shirt.




I thought he did pretty good! Click here to see another short video clip.

It should be fun watching him play this fall.

Have a good one!

Birthday Cards

 There have been several birthdays in our church. I have started trying to send a card to each member. There aren't too many right now but I know there are SEVERAL in September. I should probably start now getting them made!

I have a whole box of cards made of varying kinds but every time I look through them they don't seem to fit the person I want to send them to so I end up making a card just for them.

This was for a teenager in our church. I thought the girl kind of looked like her.

The girl image is from the Angiegirl Collection at Unity called

This is actually an acrylic stamp set that is NOT Unity! Can you believe it?! I think it is by Hero Arts.

The sentiment and banners are a Unity stamp set. I stamped on colored paper and cut out the banners.

I made this card for a little boy in our church. No stamps were used. This is all paper!

I had enough of this paper to create a couple more to have on hand.

This is for a man in our church. The stamp set is Unity by artist Phyllis Harris called "Strong & Courageous". I just love this set. I have the girl set but I have figured out how to convert and make it look like a boy. That did require me to cut out the image but it works. Genius huh?!

I made this card for a dear friend who loves birds. This image came from Unity's May Kit of the Month "Free Your Dreams". I love this birds. There are lots of other neat images in this set as well.

This card was for my niece's birthday. This stamp set is Unity called "Little by Little" by artist Tierra Jackson. This penguin is so cute! I chose to only add a touch of color to him. I colored the heart balloon. I used red ink for the sentiment and heat embossed it.

Thanks for taking a look.

Have a good one!

Riding Bikes with the Kids

July 16, 2017 I rode bikes with the kids on the trail. Keannon has Korin behind him and Kashton is riding beside him.

Kennedy and Remi are behind me.

Kashton on his Spiderman bike with a Spiderman helmet.

After we got back to the trail head the kids wanted to climb on the old caboose.

I could not get all of them in the picture at once!

Our time with Remi has gone by so fast. She goes home Friday, July 28th.


Have a good one!

Ride at Bunker Hill Ranch

July 15th I had the opportunity to go on a trail ride at a local ranch with the Sheriff's Posse. It was short notice. Doyle said the email came either Thursday night or Friday morning for a ride on Saturday. He wasn't interested in going but thought I might be. I was!






It was a small group. Only about 10 of us but that was ok with me. We are waiting for our host who was a former ranch hand. Look at all that beautiful green grass. I had a hard time keeping Fancy's head up!






And we're off! I rode Fancy mostly because Diamond was missing a shoe.

There was only one other woman there. She's riding ahead of me in this picture. She is the daughter of one of the guys.

A few stranglers.

It stayed overcast nearly the entire ride making it very comfortable despite the fact it's July.

It is so pretty and green.

I love how the trees form a canopy over the trail.

We came to this man-made tank (Texas term for pond).

Those who wanted a drink got one. Fancy wasn't interested.

Riding across the tank dam, the cows spotted us. Nope we're not after you today!

We rode by this large Oak tree that appeared to meet its demise by lightning.











At one point Fancy and I had worked ourselves all the way to the front!

The sky is so pretty.

You will have to click on this photo to see the buildings off in the distance. The entrance to this ranch is right off of highway 180 East almost right across the road from the State Park entrance.





It was a great ride. We didn't ride the whole ranch. That is for another time I hope. It was beginning to get hot and 3 horses in the group had lost shoes so we called it good for this go around.

Have a good one!

At it Again

I have been telling myself for months that I needed to start riding my bike again. Although I like mornings, I'm not a morning person. I prefer to stay up late which makes it hard to get up early! Now that we are in the middle of summer the best time to ride my bike is mornings. Plus I am more likely to ride my bike if I do it first thing in the morning. If I wait I tend to lose control of my day. 

I looked at the last time I had "logged" any miles and it had been a year....almost to the day! Yikes! Needless to say I did not ride 10 miles. I'm starting at 6 and working myself back to 10 or 12.

I do love the coolness of the morning. I am getting to watch the sunrise and just like sunsets are sometimes very colorful.

This church is just a few houses down from Mom's.

One morning I startled a couple of does. Yep, right in the middle of town!. I only saw their hindquarters as they darted off before I was aware of them. But God being good the way He is allowed me to see them again on my way back home and this time I saw all of them!

Until next time, have a good one!

Sending You a Big Hug

This card was fun to make. It isn't my usual style but I love how it turned out! I used several stamps on this.

I was inspired after watching a Unity video. I do not recall which one now.

I used Distress Oxide Inks. I put the three inks on a non-stick craft mat then spritzed with water and laid the paper on top smooshing it into the ink. I let it dry then I took a background stamp from an old Unity KOTM 2010 called "Together We Bloom". This kit is still available.

The big heart came from another Unity set called "I am who I am" and the smaller heart came from the kit "Hello Beautiful" both these sets were designed by artists Jolande van Oosterhout and Marleen van Meerendonk both from the Netherlands. I used Distress Oxide ink and embossed the hearts.

The girl and sentiment came from Unity's Kit of the Month for May called "Free Your Dreams". I colored the girl using Copic Markers. The sentiment I stamped and heat embossed then put foam under to give it dimension.

I made this card for a friend of mine that had been in the hospital. I enjoyed making this so much I may just make some more in this same style.

Have a good one.