Belated Tag Tuesday Tag

I'm always so far behind, it seems!  The Tag Tuesday group is going through the entire alphabet, letter by letter, each week.  The letter "M" was a couple of weeks ago, and I just got mine done a few days ago!  Thought I'd post it, anyway.  And I'm hoping to get back into creating really soon!

Fairy Tag for Tag Tuesday

This week over on the Tag Tuesday blog, the theme is the letter F--I love Fairies and sparkle,  so I used a beautiful image from The Graphics Fairy and added vintage seam binding, lace, Stickles, a tiny Swarovsky crystal for the little silver crown, a paper rose from the Recollections line (found at Michael's) and a word from a shabby antique children's storybook I've had for years.  The background paper is from the My Mind's Eye Lost and Found Collection.  Sorry the photography isn't great--I'm working on it! (Click on the picture for a better look!)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here's another heart I made for the 14 heARTS event that sadly, ends today.  I haven't quite decided on how I want to hang this--not sure I have the right ribbon yet, so I just left it as is for now.  It's been so wonderful to see all the lovely artwork created out of Nancy's (of Sugarlump Studios) generous tutorials!  For  several years, I have loved using vintage images (this one is from Paper Whimsy), antique buttons and ephemera, Stickles glitter and pretty scrapbook paper when I play with paper and chipboard. It's a wonderful way of taking my mind off of my troubles and just enjoying the creative process.  This has been wonderful therapy the past couple of days--thank you, Nancy, for all of your inspiration!

Little Chipboard Heart

This was my first attempt at making a little chipboard heart inspired by Nancy Maxwell-James for her 14 heARTs tutorial project.  Nancy has generously shared many of her sweet Valentine's projects and how to create them on her blog, Sugarlump Studios.  I made the heart too small and discovered that the Paper Whimsy images I wanted to use were too large to fit, so I had to settle for another image.  I love this image of the sweet angel girls, but the heart came out looking more like a Christmas ornament than a Valentine's heart!  Oh, and my skills with a glue gun are practically non-existent, so I had a lot of trouble applying the tinsel around the heart, but it was good practice for me.  Despite that little glitch, it truly was fun to get busy creating again!  I made another heart later on, and had a much easier time with the dreaded glue gun! You can see more detail on this by clicking on the picture!

Valentine's Card

I made this simple, sweet little card to send to my mother for Valentine's Day.  She suffers from dementia, and I thought getting something in the mail would brighten her day.  I talk to her every day, but it's not quite the same as being able to see her.  Hope you all are having a lovely day!

Happy to be Back!

Here are a couple of tags that I completed today for the Tag Tuesday blog.  I am so happy to be able to start blogging again!  I have been away for several months.  By way of explanation, last year, unfortunately, was a very rough one for us, and so many things got in the way, I had to put my blog on the back burner.  One of my daughters was in the hospital for 12 days and I was so scared we would lose her; happily, she is doing just fine now.  All the worry and stress, and the trips back and forth to the hospital several times a day, plus taking care of the grandchildren, were hard on me, but I was sure I was strong enough to do it all.  Then my husband's boss closed his business, and so my hubby lost his job and there went our medical and dental insurance, etc., and he was out of work for several months.  We decided to sell our house and move into an apartment so that we would be able to save the equity we'd built up, and we sold our home in just 2 days!  Crazy! Moving was stressful (as it is for everyone!) and I ended up developing stomach problems a few months ago.  THEN I ended up in the ER 2 days before Christmas with severe stomach pain--and was really ill for several days--doing better now, and again, happily, our prayers were answered and my hubby is employed and things are looking up.  So . . . now it's time to begin anew and get back to one of my loves, ART!

MEMORIAL DAY 2012

Memorial Day was originally called "Decoration Day" and was officially proclaimed "Memorial Day" in early May of 1868; when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers in Arlington National Cemetery on May 30th, 1868, this holiday was first observed.  We give thanks to and remember our fallen soldiers on Memorial Day.  God Bless the brave men and women who fought and died for our country so we could be free!