A Tragic Loss

Many of you may have noticed I've not posted in a long time. On January 4, 2012, my dear step-dad passed away after a long battle with Small Cell Lung Cancer. He remained at home under the care of hospice and my wonderful and loving mother. She did all of the care and only relied on hospice for emergencies. She loved him like no other and they were truly soul mates. She is a retired nurse but gave him so much more than nursing care. Her heart is broken. she told me she would have cared for him the rest of her life to be able to have his presence in their home. This horrible cancer took a toll on his body.

Tommie went through all of the harsh chemo treatments which hospitalized him several times including the one time which caused his kidneys to shut down. He then was scheduled for some preventive radiation treatments to help prevent the small cell cancer from attacking his brain. The results from the chemo gave him so much hope. He and my mother planned trips and life. Suddenly, my mom noticed changes in his perceptions. They returned from a trip to make Tommie's appointment with his oncologist. After some scans they discovered the cancer was back and with a fury. It had already attacked his brain. He immediately began radiation treatments which left him so very tired and his ears were so burned up from the radiation. After the radiation treatment his health declined even more.

My mom and Tommie came to visit us in Indiana after the radiation. He could no longer drive because his driving was erratic. Within two weeks after they returned home he began falling. It was three days from his first fall and a rush to the hospital by ambulance they discovered he could no longer walk. He had lost all mobility in his legs and later the rest of his body would fail him too. They sent Tommie home to die. His will to live was so strong. He hung in for almost 9 weeks. On the early morning of January 4, 2012, he packed his bags, said goodbye to this world and went home to be with our Heavenly Father and his son.

I made a small tribute for Tommie. This little video barely covers the warm, loving, caring man he was. He loved God, his country, family, travel, and people. Everyone who had the honor to meet Tommie; loved him. He was one beautiful soul. Now his beautiful soul dwells in heaven with his mom, dad, son, and many more he loved.

Paper Dolls

Holly, one of the members over at Silhouette Plus shared a set of paper dolls she made. On her blog Stitch/Craft she has a wonderful tutorial on how she made these. Below is a picture of the set of Betsy McCall Paper Doll . These paper dolls sure brought back some great memories. Holly also gives a link to lots and lots of McCall paper doll sets so you want to make sure to check out her blog. She is a very talented lady with lots of crafting ideas you would love to take a look at while you are there.

I made cutting files for two of the Betsy McCall paper doll sets to help get you started. When you click on the link over at Holly's blog you will find so many more to choose from. Come on over and join us at the Silhouette Plus group to grab a couple of paper doll cutting files and lots more free cutting files. The group over at Silhouette Plus is filled with talented and generous members. It's all free and it's all fun.

Holly's Betsy McCall Paper Doll Sets

Kid Friendly Origami Star with Cutting File

Yesterday, my granddaugher was feeling a bit under the weather so she spent the day with us. She is only three years old but loved making this start with some help. Later we made a blue star for her "Bubby". She is so thoughtful to want to make one for her big brother. They loved their stars! I glued some green embroidery yarn to the inside of them so they could hang them on their tree.

These are fast and easy to make. The adults and kids both loved seeing how pretty they look on the tree. Next year, we are going to make an entire "star" tree. Here is a picture, cutting file and instructions.

Download Cutting File HERE

Happy crafting and Merry Christmas to All.

Framed Holiday Gifts

There are so many wonderful holiday posts on projects going on over at the Silhouette Plus forum. My dh wanted a hand-made gift for a drawing at his work Christmas party. He works with all women. Kelly from Finding Time to Create posted some framed holiday projects she did for her neighbors gifts. She bought all of her frames at the Dollar store. Woohoo! for the Dollar store.

My dh went to Target and bought this one because he refused to drive across town to go to the Dollar store and I was too busy doing holiday stuff. This frame was only $10.00 at Target but I hate the way the back is made. It was very hard to get off.

With some pretty decorative cardstock I made backgrounds for the 6 areas and them on some white textured cardstock I simply cut the designs to fit in each area. Easy as can be and my dh loved it.

Next, one of the ladies posted a link to a site where a tutorial for making 3D pinecones was shared. I had a shadow box frame laying around so I decided to make another holiday framed piece to use as another gift. The frame did smash some fo the elements a little bit but, I think it still turned out nice.

If you have a couple of more little gifts you need to get; look around the house and use some of those frames we all have laying around and come up with your own special holiday framed piece. These projects were fun and easy. Off to go look for some more frames. I'm on a roll.

Making Easy Angels to Share

Joy to the world the Lod has come! Oh yes, Christmas is just around the corner and I am excited. This is my favorite time of the year. It give us all the opportunity to celebrate the most wonderful of all occasions; the birth of our Lord.

I want to share a cute little angel project I have made almost every year. You can do all sorts of things with these cute little angles. I even made an agel mobile one year. One of the reasons I enjoy making these is because they are quick and easy and so many oooooh and aaahhhh over them and they help to brighten their day. When we have visitors to our home they always leave with an angel. I think it warms their souls.

The instructions for this particular angle will measure about 3.5 inches tall. All of this can be easily done with the Studio software. If you have any problems please let me know and I'll be more than happy to help. Here is my email address My Email Address Wishing you all the blessings of the Season and a Happy New Year.

1. Draw a 4.5 cirlce in Studio, then divide it half. This will make the angel dresses and wings * If you want to make the wings with a bit of shape cut out you can also do this in Studio
2. Draw a 3.5 circle in Studio and divide these in half. This will make the sleeves
3. Roll the 4.5 circle to form a cone. (dress)
4. Roll the 3.5 circles to form two smaller cones. (sleeves)
5. insert a small piece of wire into the a large bead. I used a pearl bead for this one but you can even use wood beads and paint them with a little face.
6. tape the wire under the angel dress to hold the bead into place. * You can also hot glue the beads on.
7. Take a small piece of silver or gold pipe cleaner to form a halo with a small stem and hot glue it to the back of the angels head.
8. Fold the larger cirlcel in half and glue it to the back of the angel.
9. Embellish your angle however you would like. I embossed the paper and added a silver bell.

Silhouette Plus November Challenge

Over at the Silhouette Plus forum a challenge is hosted by the winner of the previous challenge. Holly, the November challenge host was not able to host the September challenge so, we are a month off but it is working out great.

Holly's challenge was to make a simple card design so multiple cards could be easily and quickly made to make a gift set of cards. We only had these four entries. I guess with Christmas crafting, shopping, and other holiday things going on, the guys and gals at the forum just couldn't squeeze another thing in. We sure had some gorgeous entries.

The talent on this forum, never ceases to amaze and inspire me. Below are the entries.

This is my challenge entry. A very simple setr of Christmas Cards

to cut on the Silhouette 

Challenge Entry #2 by:Debby (ekimdnamed)

These little pictures don't do these card the justice of creativity they

deserve. Debby's card set is ooolalal!
 

Challenge # 3 and the Winner of the Challenge is:

Shawna (kiyakgirl)

Congratulations to Shawna. These are beautiful!

Last but not least. This gorgeous card set entry is by:

 Gayle (Cut-It-Out)

Copy and Pasting the Silhouette Way

This is a fun, quick, and easy way to grab all sort of words and verses from the internet and make the to be what you want them to be.

I was making Christmas cards and decided I wanted some new verses to add to my card inserts. I found so many on this wonderful site HERE.

After I found the verses, I thought wouldn't it be nice if I could copy and paste it in the Silhouette Studio software instead of having to type it all out. The next thing I thought was, give it a try. yes, it pasted right into Studio and then the best thing ever! Studio let me change the font, the size, color and it made making my card inserts super easy. You can use this for cards and scrapbook pages.

This was something I wanted to make sure to share so I made another video tutorial for all of those who are just like me and enjoy seeing how something is done. I hope this comes in handy. If you want to see this video in a larger format you can check out my YouTube channel HERE .Thanks for stopping by today. Merry Christmas to All.