Winter Masculine Birthday - CYS

 Hello friends. I hope everyone is doing well today. We are having a little bit warmer temps today. It's so nice to see the sun shining. It should be this way all week. After a month of cold and rain, I'm happy to have the sunshine again.

Today I have a card to share for the SCS Challenge Your Stash challenge. Every month there is a hostess who selects the theme for the month and then the rest of the group will make a card using that theme and only items in their stash. No new things are to be purchased to make our cards. For this month our hostess was Anne (jsmommy). She posted "We have a number of January birthdays on my family, all men. Make a Winter birthday card for a man." I took a little license with my card. I did try to keep it masculine with the designer paper i used and not to add any bling to it. It's winter and I think a snowman can be masculine and it says Happy Birthday.

The image is from Inky Antics. The sentiment is from See D's (an old stamp set) Piece of Cake. I used Stampin Up Baja Breeze for the mats and card base and My Mind's Eye (MME) Lost and Found collection. The coloring was done with Copic markers. 

Thanks Anne for a fun challenge.

 

Friendly Hello - Creative Card Chicks

 Hello, my friends. I hope you are all doing well. It's a very chilly day down here in H Town as it has been for the last week or more. I'm ready for it to be over. I do have an almost new addition to my house. The night before we were to have our hard freeze with temps down in the upper teens, I brought Frosty, one of my outside kitties inside. She's the friendly one. She has been staying in a small separate room away from the other inside kitties until I can take her to the vet and get her examined to make sure she doesn't have any contagious disease after ten years of living outside (seven with me). She has an appointment for tomorrow. If she passes, then we'll see if she and the other inside kitties will get along with each other. Hopefully they will and she'll be able to stay inside. I'm not making any other decision until we see what happens tomorrow.

For now, I do have a card to share with you. This is for the SCS Creative Card Chicks Monthly Challenge. It's made with an image that we have used before. This month our hostess was Sue (stampinspooky). She picked the image for us to use. The stamp set was previously gifted to us by Kelly. We were to use our own supplies to make at least one card for the challenge. We always post our cards between the 21st and 23rd of each month. I can't believe I'm actually on time this month. Will wonders never cease!

I used Authentique Delightful collection for the designer paper and Stampin Up Soft Sky for the card base and mats. I only needed a few Copic markers to color up the image and added a bit of bling and the card was done. I'm liking simple and easy these days, but wish I had more time to create.

Chocolate -- Challenge Your Stash

 Hello again. Here I am with card number three for today. Yes, I'm playing catch up. This card is for the SCS Challenge Your Stash monthly challenge. Each month there is a hostess who picks the theme for the month. Then all the players make a card using only the items they already have in their stash - we are not to purchase anything new to use. We are supposed to post our cards on the 28th but as you can see, I'm running way late. If you look at my other December post,  you'll see why - lots going on in my household.

Our hostess for December was Lisa and she posted her theme - Dec 28th is National Chocolate Day. Use chocolate or chocolate color as the main theme of your card. I did use SU Chocolate Chip cards stock and had chocolates in the image on my card. I hope that was enough. I think you could use this for a birthday or for Valentine's Day.

Penguins - December CCC Monthly Challenge

 Well, I am back again to share another late challenge for the Creative Card Chicks. The month of December was another busy month including Christmas. I did forget to mention that I had cataract surgery on my left eye back in November and have been having follow up appointments for that. Then in December I had another low back procedure - a lumbar radial ablation where the doctor burns the nerves that have been causing back pain. I'm still not sure after a month whether the procedure worked or not. I also have bursitis in that right side, so some of the pain I'm experiencing now could be as a result of that. I'll check on that when I have my follow up appointment in about ten days.  I have also been having pain in my left wrist. (I know - don't get old - you get all kinds of aches and pains). The orthopedist diagnosed me with tendonitis in that wrist. It took a month though before he would actually do anything about it. I went in after Christmas and he gave me an injection in that wrist. That hurt like crazy!!!!!!!!! It sort of feels somewhat better, but not 100% and I still get a little kink in it every now and then. It also started bruising about a week after I had the injection. Not sure why it took that long for the bruising to show up. I have quit wearing my brace unless I'm doing something very strenuous. I'm hoping that it will get better over more time.

So, here is my card. This one was for December and the kit was sent to us by Terry. She sent a few images and I picked this one. It is from Memory Box. We were to add one other color to it since the images were black and white as well as the designer paper Terry sent us. I chose to use pink and added some pink ribbon to the card. 

Thanks Terry for the fun kit. I still have some images and paper left over so I'll probably make some more cards during the year.

November CCC - Fond of Autumn

 Hello, my friends. It has been way too long since I've posted anything here on my blog. The last three months of 2023 have been packed with all kinds of things going on that were vying for my attention rather than posting here. After my October birthday month, I went on a long weekend cruise with my two daughters, a granddaughter, a grandson, and a son-in-law. We cruised down to Cozumel, Mexico. It was my first time there, but I had been to Puerto Vallarta way back when my girls were in high school. The cruise was great. We had a sea day down, then all day Saturday in Cozumel, and then a sea day back to Galveston. Royal Caribbean really knows how to treat you on their cruises

We went to the Mayan ruins, the Bee Sanctuary, made a stop at a beachside restaurant for lunch and a little bit of ocean time, and then the Chocolate Shop before heading back to the ship. It was a long day, but we had a great time.

Of course, then it was getting ready for Thanksgiving which I spent with my daughter here in Texas and her family. We enjoyed all the normal Thanksgiving dishes and some fun game time. With all that, it took me a while to get this card done even though it is pretty simple. This card was for the SCS Creative Card Chicks Monthly Challenge. Our hostess this month was our leader, Suzy. She sent us some images and some designer paper and we could use whatever embellishments we wanted. I didn't really use anything except what she sent and added my own cardstock for the base. The stamp set she used is SU Fond of Autumn and the matching dies Autumn Bouquet. I added my Copic markers and use the SU window punch for the sentiment and added an off center mat for the sentiment.

The creative card chicks have been active for many years. The earliest thread I could find was from 2015. Each month there is a hostess who sends out a full kit her first month with images, some pattern paper and embellishments. For the second half of the year, the hostess's second kit will contain only images and pattern paper. The hostess also has the option for her second challenge to give us a theme and have us create something out of our stash. It's always fun to see when the hostess has in store for us.