Some Chatter and a Summer Colored Card

I don't usually tell you much about my life, but this last week....well...You will never believe my last week!!...No...really!!  I care for my baby boy 24/7 (ok..he's 17...but always my baby!), but last week I worked 3 days outside the house, substitute teaching to keep certified in my city to be able to teach next year(You have to work at least 3 days each school year...I just did them all in ONE WEEK...I would teach every day if I could...LOVE IT, but a challenge with my present life!!)...1st crazy thing!  Then came Saturday...catching up on everything I didn't get to do during the week and my daughter's birthday...2nd crazy thing!!  Sunday I started to notice shadows in the bottom corner of  my right eye, and by Sunday evening, the shadows had become bigger and darker.  By Monday morning, Memorial Day here in the states, the dark shadows had stretched to the center of my vision and had become black/ dark dark red!  I am thankful for the internet, by googling and reading, I was 99% sure that I had a retinal tear...and needed to see a doctor ASAP...only thing...Memorial Day...no office hours, no return calls...needed to get to an Emergency Room.  Retinal tears can cause blindness if not treated with speed!  I drove myself to an ER about 1/2 hour away (while my husband stayed with Noah), whose hospital had an eye center.  FIVE hours later, discovered that I did indeed have a retinal tear...a HUGE one, and laser work in their office at the hospital would not work...I needed surgery.  I got up at 4am on Tuesday to get to the hospital by 6 for surgery at 7:30...where, because I was an "add on"...an emergency and not "scheduled" operation...an operating room was not available for my surgery...so I waited until 11am.  The doctor was a retinal specialist such an amazing doctor...I was in good hands, but won't even tell you what he did to my eye to repair the tear...makes me queazy thinking about it...but the surgery went well!!  I saw the doctor yesterday, vision in that eye is still blurry, but will get better as the fluid returns to my eye replacing the bubble of air that was placed in it...technology is AMAZING!!!  OK...that was my 3rd and craziest thing!!  I am resting and taking it a bit easy, my husband is cooking for me...my eye is "achey"...not painful, but am so incredibly thankful for being directed to a hospital AND doctor that took such great care of my eye...SO THANKFUL!!!  AND...knowledge is power...so my hope is sharing my experience might help someone else!!

EDITED***  With Lisa's question...How did it happen?  Really quick...Tears can happen with a knock  or hit...like when playing rugby.  Tears can also happen as we get older, but as with me, if you are nearsighted(I wore glasses since I was 8yrs old, but had Lasik surgery over 10 years ago), your chances of a tear increase by a much greater percentage by just being nearsighted. So...older and nearsighted...I had two strikes against me.   But... It's nothing I did, it just happened.

I am back in my craft room...everything you see on my blog for a while will be made with one eye...so if things are a bit off, you'll know why:)!!
There will be a HUGE event sponsored by Simon Says Stamp tomorrow...and although I am late, I WILL be a part, I hope you will check back tomorrow...it will BE FUN!!!!!
This card was made with some of the stamps from the Simon Says Stamp Summer Release...this release ROCKS!!!!....

I used a color that HGTV says is a 2013 summer color...Coral!  Used Stampin Up Calypso Coral paper and marker.  The flowers are from  Simon Says Stamp Flower Friend and Petal Pieces stamp sets. I stamped, colored and cut out...kind of bending the petals for dimension -+ popping them up.   I used a gingham cover the card from Impression Obsession with versamark and  leaves from a My Favorite Things die set.  Hope I will see you  tomorrow...it's going to be SO MUCH FUN!!!!   Thanks for visiting me today!! Hugs!! Lisa

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Simon Says Stamp Start of Summer Release!

Oh My Goodness...Simon Says Stamps's Summer 2013 release is AMAZING!!!  I  am so overwhelmed with all the wonderful goodness, I hardly know where to begin!!!  I decided to ease into the amazing stamps and dies, by using some new dies that were highly requested and designed especially for the Simon Says Stamp set released in the spring  called Flower Friend coupled with a sentiment from a brand new set called Happy!...

I used a cover the card stamp from Impression Obsession(Gingham) to add some more "pretty" to the birthday card (I love gingham:)!)!  Popped up the die cut flower and leaves as well as the gingham/sentiment panel.  Used a Spellbinder long rectangle die for the framing.  Thanks for visiting me today!! Hugs!! Lisa

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Ahoy Matey!

I'm sorry that I have been so absent...creating and commenting have taken a distinct backseat to life...I hope that life will take on some normalcy after Friday...until then, a card I made with a cute little set that I recently got from Clearly Besotted called Ahoy Matey...

I stamped and cut out the ship, sails(used cream paper) and flag.  I punched holes where the windows are for added dimension.  Didn't have wave dies or even scallops that were small enough, so just did three shades of blue paper angled.  The clouds are Memory Box...LOVE how small they were for this card(sponged a little gray around the edges)!  Curved the sails and flag a bit and popped them and the ship with 3D dots.  Thanks for visiting me today!! Hugs!! Lisa

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Happy Father's Day Stripes

I love the cover-a-card stamps from Impression Obsession!!  I recently purchased the Diagonal Lines stamp and although I have a bunch of ideas of different ways to use it, this is what a moment of experimenting with the stamp led me to make the other day...

 I masked, stamped and clear embossed just a handful of the card covering diagonal lines.  Then I cut 1/4"wide pieces of Tim Holtz distress papers in different shades of blue and adhered them between the black diagonals.  I die cut a circle and stamped the sentiment on the card.  Popped up the panel on the card.  Here's a close up, you can see the shininess of the stamped lines...an added textural "thing"...

 Thanks for visiting me today!! Hugs!! Lisa

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Uber Cool

I don't get tired of doing washi on the diagonal!!  I have done it at least a couple times, but always seem to think of a new "angle"with the next attempt.  This card, I used washi that I recently purchased at Michael's (thought it looked "cool").  It came with the large pattern and the smaller polka dots.  SO...I put the washi on the diagonal on white paper, but decided to use one of the Paper Smooches  Slang Gang sentiments with it, and felt that "Uber Cool" would look cool with shades of blue on either side of the patterned washi....I cut the papers to fit like puzzle pieces, side by side with the washi taped paper...

I used Tim Holtz distress paper...love the colors and texture of this paper...Thanks for visiting me today!! Hugs!! Lisa

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Simon Says Stamp Blog Today

I am honored and thrilled to be featured on the Simon Says Stamp blog today!!!  I WILL tell you that all three cards that I made were made using this little stamp from the Simon Says Stamp Circle Friends stamp set...One with the stripes simply striped, the other two with them stamped over  one another in two colors, plaid...

Hope you will check them out...thank you so much, Stephanie, for having me on the blog today...SUPER FUN:)!!!    Thanks for visiting me today!! Hugs!! Lisa

CAS(E) this Sketch #28

The last couple weeks...cray cray!!  Had a set of stamps in mind for this week's sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch...here's the sketch and my card...

Made with a retired Hero Arts Set I Love My Dog...will give you a link to ebay if you're interested.  The sentiment is from Paper Smooches...a set of uber cool sayings that I HAVE NO IDEA how to use, but just simply could not resist having...have any ideas...please share with me.  Thought this adorable dog was perfect with "Sup?"(meaning what's up?"....just in case you didn't know and was wondering:)!!).  I cut one of the paws off of the row of paws stamp and stamped the line of paws on my card with a single paw print.  My paws could have gone a little higher, but calling it creative interpretation(otherwise known as not looking at the sketch closely enough while creating:)!!).  Thanks for visiting me today!! Hugs!! Lisa

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Less is More 119...One Layer, Colored Card Blank

The challenge at Less is More this week is to make a one layer card using a colored card blank...no white, black, kraft, cream cards....colored.  I must admit...my daughter said my card was a little "busy"...I did go a little crazy with my daisies stamp...stamped 3x instead of the 1x that I was GOING to stamp...so my card doesn't have as much white(yellow) space as it perhaps should...but it is still simple.  So sorry, Chrissie and Jen!!   I DID use a piece of acetate for the sentiment...

I stamped the flowers in black and colored with white and green Prisamcolor Pencils.  Dotted the centers with black Enamel Accents.  I adhered the acetate by dotting the two lowest flowers' centers with a dot of Glossy Accents and placed the acetate on top of the sticky flowers.  I THEN dotted THEIR centers with the Enamel Accents...covering the glue and making them look like all the rest of the flowers.     Thanks for visiting me today!! Hugs!! Lisa

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