Different Personalities

My sign is Gemini so I definitely have 2 different personalities; those that know me well have adapted. The reason I am sharing this is that the 3 cards I am showing today are totally different and, if I didn't know better, would have assumed they would have been done by 3 different people.

It just goes to show you that I am influenced by whatever mood I may be in; the stamps or paper I may be using; or, even why I am making the card.

The first is a Thank You to a dear family friend for leaving me various vegetables from her garden. It is such a delight to come home and a bag of squash, green beans, or corn are left hanging on our front door knob. I simply used scraps of a set from Close To My Heart called Let's Get Together, some pop dots, and a bit of ribbon.

The white card is a sympathy card to some friends who just lost their parents very closely together. I just ran white textured cardstock through the Cuttlebug on the Damask folder, stamped the greeting and tied a bit of grey ribbon around the card. I did line the front of the card with grey cardstock to match the ribbon and ink. This card is a regular 4.25" x 5.5" card turned sideways with an off center fold.

The final card is one to send to a friend that is having a difficult time healthwise and could use some lifting up. The inspiration was a new stamp set from Our Daily Bread called "Ask, Seek, Knock." It is one of my favorite verses of the Bible and I was thrilled to find it in rubber!

For this card I stamped the door and the verse with chocolate ink on kraft cardstock and mounted it on cream then on Twilight cardstock. All my cardstock and most patterned papers come from Close To My Heart. I inked the outer edges with chocolate and colored in the door with markers, again from Close To My Heart. The ribbon is chocolate and the buttons are vintage from my stash.

Someday I may have a certain "style" that will be recognizeable but for now, you never know how things will turn out.

Have a great week!

Tee

Father's Day Cupcakes

I have to share one more photo with you from my real life. My husband, Rannie, is an avid golfer. Usually on Saturdays and Sundays he is out with his buddies getting his serving of "greens." I love it 'cause I am usually in my studio or on adventures with Cody, the wonderdog.

Anyway, our anniversary and Father's Day fell on the same weekend so, I decided to make Rannie some cupcakes. I kinda went overboard with the creativity because 18 cupcakes became 18 holes of golf. I used green frosting for the greens, graham cracker crumbs for the sand traps, tinted some frosting blue for water features, and used green sugar for the "rough."

Now, I am not Martha Stewart, but I have to say they were fun. I even tried to make some of them really hard 5 pars and I used toothpicks with cardstock triangles for flags. Add a sign "Ransoneville Public Golf Course" and my project was complete.

Rannie really had fun with the treats! He even told some of his buddies that had played through 12 but the last 6 were killer.

Here is a picture of Rannie with the "course." Hope you have fun this weekend!

Tee

The Wedding and other stuff

So, so sorry for being such a bad blogger but my topic is life and that comes first. SO, what has been going on....

You have been hearing about my young friend Nikki's wedding. The glorious day finally came and, of course, she was a beautiful, glowing bride. Nikki's wedding was as she is: simply elegant, heartfelt, and happy. She had a beautiful red and white theme which made the event "glow!"

I offered to host a shower for her but she meekly asked me instead if I could help her with some creative ideas for her reception. She and her new husband, Ryan, have lost family recently to cancer and made a donation in honor and memory of those loved ones to the American Cancer Society in lieu of "wedding favors." She asked me to do a table card to let all of their guests know of it AND she and her mom were making cookies (such a sweet, homey treat!) for the guests to take away as a thank-you so she needed thank you tags for them.



Of course I plowed into the challenge with a loving heart. I have to say that if not for my trusty Cricut die-cutting machine, these items would not have happened. I renamed my studio, the Nikki wedding garden, for the 3 weeks leading up to the event.


The photos show the examples. There were 28 acrylic 4" x 6" frames for the tables and 135 Thank you tags for the cookies.

The stamp used on the tag was from the Simply Senitiments set from Close To Your Heart as was the textured white cardstock. The die used was from the BIG SHOT from Sizzix. I used 2 different red cardstocks from Close To My Heart and red/white rhinestones for the centers. The 2 greens for the leaves were also CTMH cardstock.

Here is a photo of the whole wedding party. Our daughter Emory was the Matron of Honor, third from the left, bottom row.


Thanks Nikki and Ryan for letting me help. We all wish you many, many years of happiness!!!

Tee

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all moms out there. I have had lots of "Moms" in my life but the ones that truly matter right now are Anne and Margaret. My mom, Anne McClintock, is an incredible woman. I joke about "hearing my mother's words coming out of my mouth" but I know my innate sense of right and wrong, wearing black pants to cover a multitude of sins, and knowing how to navigate a formal dinner party is all from my mother.

Margaret Ransone, my mother-in-law, is my other mom. Margaret was a home economics teacher in the local high school for 31 years and is a model cook and housekeeper. She is a very busy lady and I have grown to love and respect her over the 25 years I have known her. She loves her family fiercely and I can always count on her help if I need it. When Rannie and I met, I was very different from what she and Ralph, Rannie's Dad, had in mind for their youngest son. However, we have grown to understand each other and celebrate our differences as all successful families do.

Since this is a papercrafting site, I thought you would enjoy seeing the cards that I made for each of our Mothers. My focus for the past few months has been cleaning out my studio and making use of what I have. I will be helping a young friend with her wedding "favors" soon and wanted to try my hand at paper flowers. SO, I pulled out several scraps of each color family and got to work with my trusty Cricut. I did enjoy making these cards and for both Mama and Margaret. Anne got the yellow flowers at top and Margaret was the recipient of the red. Both were very appreciative of my time and talents!

I would love to hear your comments. Please take a moment and let me know what you are working on. Soon I will be showing my ideas for Nikki's wedding and a graduation card or two. 'Tis the season!

Best,

Tee

Travel

Ni Hao! My most recent adventure to China is now over and I have over 1,700 photos to review. Digital photography has really induced shutterbugs like me to go overboard!

China is a study in contrasts and I hope to share some of China seen through my eyes as soon as I can get over my jet-lag. Speaking of, here is one that I snapped taken over northern Alaska about a third of the way to Beijing. Such beautiful, pristine, frozen mountains!

I promise I will post more....later!

Tee

Easter

Blessings to you! My Easter was everything it should be; Family, good food, spiritual renewal.

Our daughter and son-in-law, Emmy and Michael, arrived Friday evening along with our grand-dog Spartacus which doubled our household and filled the house with lots of good feelings. It is so wonderful when they can come home!

I have included a photo of my Mom with her Easter Lily after Church. I love Easter at Irvington Baptist because the flowers highlight the stained glass window of the bapistry. So beautiful. Amoungst other activities we went to our church Sunday and then lunch at my Aunt Ella's.

I have also included a photo of my Easter cards for the family. I love this little peep with his bunny ears! It is a stamp from Impress that I hand-colored with Prisma pencils. The stamped sentiment inside (also from Impress Stamps) says "Happy Easter to you." The ribbon is from Close To My Heart and the card was from a boxed set from Michaels.

It will be a while until my next post. I will be leading a group trip to China! I know I will have lots to share when I return. In the meantime enjoy this beautiful Spring season!

Zai Jian! (So long! in Mandarin)

Tee

Family

More and more these days the word
"Family" has different meanings. Over the years I have had "brothers" and "sisters" that my Mama never delivered. I think that comes from being an only child; I have, however, been the beneficiary of lots of aunts and uncles. Which also means many wonderful cousins. I happen to be the oldest.

Since my youngest aunt is only 5 years older than me, I have been an unofficial little sister to my Mother's sisters and brother. I have always treasured my times with the "aunts," especially since I have gotten older. They are all delightful, beautiful, talented southern Ladies, as is my Mom, and we all share that kinship of WOMEN. The photo shows (l-r) Aunt Frances, Aunt Ella, Beautiful Sutton, Bernie, Mama Anne, and me.

Yesterday several of us gathered at a lunch table in a local family restaurant. The main purpose was to bid farewell to my cousin Sutton. Sutton's dad, my Uncle Jack, died in January. Sutton and Stuart, (Sutton's brother, my cousin) had come back to Virginia to be with Uncle Jack in his last days and Sutton had stayed to settle matters here. Sutton and Stuart have made their lives on the West Coast and are very successful individuals.

I realized, during the brief times that I had shared with them, that I truly loved being with my cousins, and also that I wished we lived closer so that we could enjoy each other as friends. Alas, the time has come for Sutton to resume her life after this tragic interruption. She will be taking the long way home, stopping along the way to visit friends in different parts of the country. As I mentioned to her yesterday, sometimes a commute helps ease the transition. She said that she agreed and that is the main reason she is doing it; a 4 hour flight would be too quick.

Sutton's maternal Grandmother, Bernie, (whom she affectionately calls "Boo") was also there to thank all of us for our tenderness towards Sutton during this time. We all knew that "thanks" was unnecessary as we love her, Stuart and Uncle Jack. We were all appreciative of this last opportunity to be together. Bernie plus Sutton's mom and step-dad will also be traveling to the coast later this summer in a major move of household to be near their children.

So, bonne chance mon cher cousin! I do hope we will be together again someday. Remember, tho' you now live on the west coast, you are a southern girl at heart (remember those ham biscuits) and we all stick together! I will miss you.

Tee